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A Utah inmate has been charged with murder in the death of his cellmate at the state prison.
Timothy Patrick Maez, 38, was charged Thursday in 3rd District Court with aggravated murder, a first-degree felony, after an apparent altercation left his 33-year-old cellmate, James Charles Corbett, fatally wounded. Corbett was scheduled to be released Friday.
Maez allegedly got into an argument with his Olympus-unit cellmate on Aug. 10 and attacked him, charging documents state. He punched Corbett, stabbed him with a pen, cut him with a razor and strangled him with a bed sheet, charges state.
He tried to "shove and kick a pen into Mr. Corbett's ears several times," charges state, and "shoved a spoon into Mr. Corbett's eye socket."
Maez also stomped on Corbett, charges say, struck him with his knee and slammed his head against the floor. Once Corbett was unconscious, Maez allegedly told police, he used a piece of bed sheet to strangle his cellmate and didn't stop the assault until he heard officers enter the unit for a security check.
The officer who conducted the security check found Maez with "a significant amount of blood on his face, chest and pants," charges state, and Corbett lying unresponsive on the floor of the cell. Maez told the officer that Corbett required medical attention, charges state, and Corbett was taken to the hospital, where he was declared dead.
A medical examiner determined that Corbett died from ligature strangulation, though he also suffered blunt, sharp and penetrating injuries.
If convicted, Maez could face the death penalty.
Maez is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 22.
The Olympus facility houses inmates who require mental-health treatment.
Corbett was serving consecutive terms of up to five years each for two counts of attempted sexual abuse of a child.
Maez's most recent incarceration — a sentence of one to 15 years — began in June 2014 after Maez pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated kidnapping, a second-degree felony. He was given two subsequent sentences in 2015 — on separate cases — for propelling a substance at a correctional officer and retaliation against a judge or Board of Pardons and Parole member.
Twitter: @mnoblenews