State v. Rivera

OPINION

HATHAWAY, Judge.

Appellant was charged with first-degree murder for a prison homicide. A jury found him guilty, and the trial court imposed a sentence of life imprisonment.

Appellant and his codefendant, both members of the Mexican Mafia prison gang, were cellmates. According to an inmate who testified for the state, appellant admitted to him that they killed the victim in retaliation for an assault the victim had previously committed on one of the bosses of the Mexican Mafia.

The victim had 47 stab wounds, six of which could have been fatal. Investigators found two prison-made shanks,…