By Sara Burnett
Rocky Mountain News
Federal prosecutors said Wednesday they will continue to seek the death penalty against Rudy Sablan, even though a jury this year spared his cousin’s life for the same 1999 killing.
Sablan’s defense attorneys had argued that prosecutors could not “in good faith and conscience” seek death for Rudy Sablan in light of the jury’s decision in William Sablan’s case.
Both men were charged with first-degree murder in the death of Joey Estrella, their cellmate at the federal prison in Florence.
At William Sablan’s trial this year, prosecutors said the three men were drinking prison-made alcohol when they began arguing.
Rudy Sablan strangled Estrella from behind with a headphone cord, rendering him unconscious, prosecutors said. William Sablan then repeatedly cut Estrella’s throat with a prison-issued razor - the fatal injury, they said.
By the time guards realized something was wrong, Estrella’s abdomen had been cut open, and his internal organs ripped out and strewn about the cell.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brenda Taylor told U.S. District Judge Wiley Daniel on Wednesday that the issue of whether to continue seeking the death penalty had gone to the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., for consideration. The deputy attorney general made the final decision.
“My understanding is they are directing us to proceed with the death penalty,” Taylor said.
Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for U.S. Attorney for Colorado Troy Eid, declined further comment.
The question of whether Rudy Sablan should face death may not be fully decided, however.
Defense attorney Forrest Lewis said he plans to challenge prosecutors’ claim that Rudy Sablan’s actions were “heinous or depraved” — a factor that must exist in order for prosecutors to continue seeking the death penalty.
Lewis has argued that prosecutors are overstating Rudy Sablan’s role in the crime. It was William Sablan — not Rudy Sablan — who killed Estrella and then removed his organs, he stated in a motion filed last year.
Copyright 2007 Rocky Mountain News