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Jury finds inmate guilty of strangling cellmate

The Bakersfield Californian | Thursday, Jan 24 2008 10:30 PM

Last Updated: Friday, Jan 25 2008 7:04 AM

A Kern County jury has convicted a state prison inmate for killing his cellmate in 2006.

Glen Murphy, 36, was found guilty Wednesday of second-degree murder in the death of Sang Saelee, 26.

Kern County Deputy District Attorney David Wilson said the two men were alone in their cell at Kern Valley State Prison near Delano the night of Nov. 21, 2006.

Trial evidence showed the victim was either strangled by Murphy's bare hands or choked to unconsciousness and then placed face down where he later died, Wilson said.

"Either way, the victim's death was a direct result of Murphy's actions," Wilson said.

Murphy confessed in a videotaped interview that he held the smaller man off the floor by the neck, Wilson said.

Murphy is at least 6 feet tall, 245 pounds, Wilson noted. His cellmate was 5 feet, 4 inches, 145 pounds.

But Nancy Sharp, the Kern County public defender who represented Murphy, said there were elements of self-defense evident in Murphy's actions.

First, the defendant held a trustee-like position at the prison, indicating he had a history of good behavior, she said. Second, Saelee struck the first blow.

Murphy is blind in one eye, Sharp added, giving him a greater right to respond with strong force than he may have had otherwise.

Finally, look at the tiny cell the men were confined in, and the general atmosphere of physical threat and hopelessness prisoners see, and it should come as no surprise that petty arguments blow up into physical confrontations, she said.

Unfortunately, Sharp said, the jury didn't agree with those arguments.

Murphy could see more than 50 years added to his current prison term for an attempted murder conviction in San Bernardino County in 2003. He is scheduled to be sentenced March 4.