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• May 20, 2008 1:09 pm US/Mountain
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  Inmate Convicted Of Cellmate's Murder Gets Life

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Inmate Convicted Of Cellmate's Murder Gets Life

DENVER (CBS4/AP) ― A man facing the death penalty was sentenced to life in prison by a federal jury Tuesday afternoon after being convicted for his role in a prison slaying in which he was videotaped smearing an organ from the victim on his cell door.

A Denver federal jury convicted Rudy Cabrera Sablan earlier this month in the first-degree murder of cellmate Joey Estrella, who was killed in 1999 at the federal penitentiary in Florence.

Sablan's co-defendant and cousin, William Sablan, was convicted last year for the homicide and was sentenced to life in prison without parole after jurors decided against the death penalty.

Prosecutors said Estrella was choked into unconsciousness with headphone cords and then his throat was slit with a razor, later used to disembowel him.

Prosecutors said Estrella was killed after the three men got drunk on homemade wine and got into an argument in their cell. Rudy Sablan's defense attorneys said he was trying to stop his two cellmates from fighting, and that when he was captured on video holding Estrella's organ he was trying to appear boastful to protect himself from his cousin.

(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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