| Inmate Says He Killed
Man To Get New Cell
The inmate charged in the January throat-slashing
death of a fellow prisoner at Avenal State Prison told investigators
he committed the crime because noise levels in his general-population
cell block were annoying him, and he wanted to be moved to administrative
segregation.
Howard Brown, 34, was serving time
at Avenal for two counts of residential burglary when
he attacked and killed Yuri
Spisarczuk, 57, in a prison yard. Brown, who was scheduled
for release in June 2009, now faces a 50-year-to-life mandatory
sentence under the "Three Strikes and You're Out" law
if convicted of the killing.
Patrick Hart, chief deputy district attorney for Kings
County, said it doesn't appear that the slaying was gang-related.
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