Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah State Prison inmate has pleaded guilty to aggravated murder in connection with the death of his cellmate.
Timothy P. Maez, 39, entered a guilty plea for the first-degree felony charge Friday in 3rd District Court.
On Aug. 10, a corrections officer saw Maez standing outside his cell with a "significant amount" of blood on him, charges state. Inside the cell, James C. Corbett, 33, who was to be released in less than a month, was unresponsive.
Maez told investigators that he and Corbett began fighting and that he stabbed Corbett with a pen, cut him with a razor and stomped his head on the floor, according to the charges.
The pair was housed in an area for inmates with mental illness.
Maez has a criminal history dating to 1999, with convictions of aggravated kidnapping, retaliation against a board of pardons member and propelling a substance at a correctional officer, according to the Department of Corrections. His most recent prison sentence began in June 2014.
Related:
Inmate with extensive criminal record killed cellmate, police say
Unified police detectives believe an inmate killed on Wednesday suffered fatal injuries due to an assault from his cellmate.In January 2015, he sent a letter threatening to kill a member of the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.
Corbett was convicted of two counts of attempted sexual abuse of a child in 2007 and ordered to serve two consecutive sentences of up to five years in prison.
The aggravated murder plea carries a potential sentence of 25 years to life. Maez is set to be sentenced Aug. 21.
