The case against Rudy Sablan began with evidence of a rowdy, violent prison attack on an inmate who was disemboweled and strangled.
But on Friday, Sablan’s first-degree murder case ended quietly in just 10 minutes as U.S. District Judge Wiley Y. Daniel sentenced him to life without the possibility of release.
Sablan, 38, was charged with strangling cellmate Joey Estrella with a pair of headphone cords at the U.S. Penitentiary in Florence on Oct. 10, 1999.
Sablan declined to make a statement to the court during his sentencing.
In May, a jury convicted Sablan of murder, but spared him the death penalty.
Last year, Sablan’s distant cousin and co-defendant, William Sablan, also avoided a death sentence when a lone juror decided against it.
Estrella was strangled after a night of drinking prison-made alcohol and fighting in the high-security housing unit.
Prison guards testified that both William and Rudy Sablan pulled Estrella’s organs out of his abdomen and held them up in celebration of the killing.
William Sablan took sole responsibility for the killing, but Rudy Sablan was shown on tape helping him get rid of a razor blade and telling William to keep his mouth shut.
In the verdict forms, seven jurors said they felt the Bureau of Prisons was partly responsible for the death by putting the three together in the cell and for not checking the cell every 30 minutes.
Jurors were also swayed by Rudy Sablan’s relationship with his 14-year-old son, who testified during the penalty phase of the trial.
Daniel told Rudy Sablan that he should consider behaving himself while in prison and take advantage of the second chance.
Sablan will likely be placed by the Bureau of Prisons into a high-security area, but Daniel said with good behavior over time, Sablan may be allowed more freedoms within the system.
“Your life was spared and that can mean something if you allow it to mean something,” Daniel said.
Felisa Cardona: 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com
