CORTEZ, Colo.—A Cortez man has been sentenced to 36 years in prison in the strangulation death of his ex-girlfriend.
Forty-nine-year-old George Michael Mirabal was sentenced Wednesday in the death of Lucille S. Gray, a Cortez Middle School paraprofessional.
Mirabal pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in December under a plea agreement that capped his prison sentence at 36 years. Sentences for second-degree murder can range from 16 to 48 years.
Montezuma County District Judge Sharon Hansen said she struggled with granting the plea deal because of Mirabal’s previous murder conviction.
Keith Mandelski, chief deputy district attorney, said Mirabal was convicted on a second-degree murder charge in New Mexico in 1985.
The 46-year-old Gray was found dead in her home April 12.
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Information from: Cortez Journal,
