CUMBERLAND, Md. (AP) — A judge in Cumberland is ordering another 30 years of prison time for a state inmate who strangled his cellmate at the maximum-security North Branch Correctional Institution.
Thirty-nine-year-old Paul Martin was sentenced after pleading guilty Wednesday to a reduced charge of second-degree murder in the July 2015 death of 59-year-old Terrance Cirata. Martin had been charged with first-degree murder.
Martin was already serving a life sentence plus 24 years for his 1997 convictions for first-degree murder and other offenses in Charles County.
Allegany County State's Attorney Michael Twigg said in a statement that prison staff found Cirata dead in his cell. He was serving a 25-year sentence for his 2011 convictions for sexually assaulting two children in Wicomico County.