Rudy Sablan ended up murdering and mutilating his cellmate at the U.S. Penitentiary in Florence, but the history of violence in his life didn’t start there.
Sablan, 38, was born on the Northern Mariana island of Saipan, near Guam, to parents who had an abusive relationship.
He and his siblings were beaten so badly he was afraid to return home at night, said his defense lawyer, Forrest Lewis.
Jurors who convicted Sablan last week of the first-degree murder of his cellmate, Joey Jesus Estrella, are now considering whether Sablan should be put to death for the crime.
Estrella was strangled, his throat was cut and he was disemboweled after a night of drinking “hooch” and fighting in the cell on Oct. 10, 1999.
For the first time, jurors were told that William Sablan, a distant cousin who also shared the cell, was sentenced to life without parole last year.
The jury may consider that.
Prosecutor Brenda Taylor told the jurors that the government is seeking death because Rudy Sablan is a future threat and because the nature of Estrella’s murder was particularly heinous.
“He relished the killing,” she said. “He was calling . . . offering body parts, whooping and hollering in celebration.”
Taylor told jurors of Sablan’s long history of assaulting other inmates — one victim was stomped on in a cell, another was stabbed in the neck while in a prison recreation yard.
“He has had a continuing succession and escalation of violent choices,” Taylor said. “A death sentence is not a consequence that we take lightly.”
But Sablan’s lawyer argued that his life was worth sparing.
As a boy, Sablan was “a good kid who had a good character and a good heart,” Lewis said.
But by the eighth grade, family troubles caused Sablan to drop out of school. Sablan tried to go back to school by moving to Guam to live with his grandmother, but she died before he had the chance to succeed, Lewis said.
While in federal prison in Atlanta, Sablan learned that he had fathered a son.
Since then, he has developed a relationship with the now 14-year-old and wants to teach the boy that he doesn’t have to lead a life like his own, Lewis said.
Felisa Cardona: 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com
