ALEXANDRIA, LA—United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced today that a prisoner at the U.S. Penitentiary in Pollock, La., was sentenced to 135 months in prison for his role in the strangling death of a fellow inmate.

Refugio Junior Sanchez, 36, of Belton, Texas, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dee D. Drell on one count of voluntary manslaughter. He was also sentenced to three years of supervised release. According to evidence presented at the February 26, 2015 guilty plea, Sanchez and fellow inmates, Benito Flores and the victim, were assigned to a Special Housing Unit (SHU) on March 12, 2008. Penitentiary guards found Sanchez and Flores with the victim who was lying unconscious on the floor of the SHU. The inmate was transported to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy found that the victim died of strangulation. In conjunction with physical and forensic evidence that was presented at the guilty plea hearing, Sanchez issued a written statement wherein he admitted to unlawfully killing the victim during a heated argument.

The FBI and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Earl M. Campbell prosecuted the case.