SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A Utah inmate could face the death penalty after pleading guilty to killing his cellmate.
Court records say 35-year-old Steven Crutcher pleaded guilty to murder Monday in the death of 62-year-old Roland Cardona-Gueton. A jury will decide in January whether Crutcher should be sentenced to death or remain in prison without the possibility of parole.
Cardona-Gueton’s April 2013 death was originally investigated as a suicide. Prosecutors say in court papers that Crutcher confessed to strangling Cardona-Gueton at the Central Utah Correctional Facility in a letter sent to Sanpete County Attorney Brody Keisel last July.
Crutcher’s attorneys wanted the letters kept out of the trial and are appealing a judge’s decision to allow them.
Keisel says Crutcher will be allowed to withdraw his plea if the Utah Supreme Court decides in his favor.
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