UPDATE–  After hearing from a mitigation specialist and family members, Judge Wallace Lee sentenced Julio Cesar Garza to life in prison without the possibility of parole.  While Judge Lee said the mitigating factors were compelling, they did not outweigh the aggravating factors and the brutality of the murder.

After a four day trial, a Central Utah Correctional Facility inmate has been found guilty of murdering his cellmate.  Julio Cesar Garza was convicted of the 1st degree aggravated murder of his cellmate, Carlos Adrian Hernandez, shortly after Garza arrived at the prison in August 2016.  He said he had to do violence to Hernandez because the prison gang Garza belonged to demanded it or he himself would be punished.  Garza beat and stomped on Hernandez’s head for more than seven minutes before he was stopped by guards.  Hernandez was transported to the Gunnison Valley Hospital and flown to Utah Valley Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.  A trauma physician who treated Hernandez compared the head injuries to having the man’s head run over by a car.  Garza took the witness stand and while never denying killing Hernandez, he said he never intended to kill him.

Judge Wallace Lee will sentence Garza on Friday, March 11 in Manti.  He could receive life in prison without the possibility of parole.