By Associated Press - Wednesday, November 6, 2019

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A man has been sentenced to 26 years to life in prison for stabbing a fellow passenger to death aboard a Southern California transit bus last year.

A jury deliberated for less than an hour in September before finding Manuel Ortiz Jr. guilty of murder

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office says the 29-year-old was sentenced Wednesday.



Prosecutors said Ortiz stabbed 22-year-old Austin Zavala multiple times in the neck and head aboard a Montebello transit bus in East Los Angeles on April 9, 2018. Investigators said it was a random attack.

Zavala, a college student from Whittier, died weeks later at a hospital.

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