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Two offenders sentenced for Colorado State Penitentiary inmate’s death

Drew Anderson and Miguel Alvarado. (Colorado Department of Corrections)
Drew Anderson and Miguel Alvarado. (Colorado Department of Corrections)
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Two of the six offenders charged in connection with the June 2022 beating death of a fellow inmate at Colorado State Penitentiary were each sentenced to 20 years in the Department of Corrections on Monday.

Miguel Alvarado, 28, and Drew Anderson, 42, were charged with first-degree murder after deliberation after the beating death of 49-year-old Samuel Garcia on June 21, 2022.

Alvarado and Anderson each pleaded guilty to murder in the second degree, a Class 2 felony, with a stipulated DOC sentence of 20 years to run consecutive to any other sentences they are serving.

Before Monday’s sentencing, Anderson was eligible for parole in July and had an estimated mandatory release date of Oct. 29, 2031. Alvarado was serving a 23-year sentence from El Paso County and two sentences out of Fremont County for two and seven years.

Garcia’s sister, Christine Garcia, spoke to each of the men during their separate sentencing hearings Monday.

“Mr. Alvarado has been hurting people for a long time,” she said. “Not just my family, but the families of his other victims, not just his victims on the streets, but his victims in prison, and he has been doing this to his own family.”

She wondered why he kept repeating the same pattern of hurting others and himself, and if he wanted a better life.

“Time is not on your side, time was not on my brother’s side, and someday you’re not going to be 26 or 27 or 28,” she said. “Someday you’re going to be 38 or 48 or you’re going to be 50 like my brother. There’s always going to be someone in line just like you waiting for an opportunity to prey on you just like you preyed on my brother.”

She said he’s just as dangerous in the prison system as he is in the free world.

“You have no remorse for what you did to my brother, and that’s fine, but think about what you’re doing to your family,” she said. “You need to change the way you’re living.”

During Anderson’s afternoon hearing, Garcia expressed sorrow for his actions that led to him picking up a 20-year sentence just before he was eligible for parole.

“Now, instead of being a free man sometime this year, he now has 20 more years,” she said. “That makes me sad because Mr. Anderson is in his early 40s now, he’s a little older than the other defendants in this case, and he should know better. I don’t know what the circumstances were that he got pulled into my brother’s murder, but I am sad that neither one will have the future that they deserve.”

Surveillance from the scene shows Samuel Garcia being physically assaulted in a day hall by six individuals identified as Ricardo Castro, 33, Dominik Jaramillo, 25, Jody Mobley, 56, Enrique Arellano, 31, Alvarado and Anderson.

A surveillance camera recording of the assault showed Castro interacting with Alvarado several minutes before the assault began.

According to an affidavit written by Investigator T. Matarazzo of the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Corrections, Castro, who had previously been issued two medical crutches because of a recent knee surgery, freely gave Alvarado one crutch. Alvarado made physical gestures with the crutch, imitating a movement similar to throwing a javelin that was directed to unseen individuals in other day halls that were in the line of sight. Alvarado gave the crutch back to Castro and pursued Garcia from the lower tier, up the stairs to the upper tier where the assault was initiated. As Alvarado pursued Garcia up the stairs, Castro walked to the base of the stairs, where he waited.

After being initially assaulted, Garcia attempted to flee by running back down the stairs from the upper tier to the lower tier.

Jaramillo, Arellano, Castro, Mobley and Alvarado converged in a circle around Garcia, and Jaramillo, Arellano, Alvarado and Mobley all delivered multiple closed fist strikes to the head and upper torso.

As the four offenders assaulted the victim, Castro assisted in the assault by striking him twice in the head with the crutch and attempted a third strike, which was unsuccessful in contacting the victim, the affidavit states. Immediately after Castro had struck Garcia with the crutch, Castro allowed Arellano to take it from him to continue to use the crutch as a weapon against Garcia, an affidavit states.

Several seconds later, Arellano struck Garcia in the face with the crutch, impairing his ability to defend himself. The crutch eventually broke into several pieces, which were used by the offenders to continue assaulting Garcia.

Castro, who remained near the assault and in direct view, walked up to Garcia (out of camera view), who was now non-responsive and lying on the floor at the base of the front glass wall in a large pool of blood. During the time Castro was standing at Garcia’s location, Arellano continued to assault him.

Castro is again seen by the camera bending over Garcia, the affidavit states. Castro reappears in camera view holding two pieces of his crutch, one piece in each hand. After this, Castro is partially seen in camera view. His body movements indicate he is likely kicking Garcia.

Castro walked away with two pieces of his crutch to the back of the lower tier, where he lay on the ground and waited for responders to restrain him.

According to the affidavit, as Garcia was being removed from the day hall on a gurney by medical staff, Castro, who was also being escorted from the day hall, looked at the victim and yelled, “Die (expletive)!’”

Garcia initially was transported to St. Thomas More Hospital, then later to Penrose Hospital in Colorado Springs, where he died from his injuries June 28, 2022.

The final autopsy results revealed he died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head from the physical assault.

Jaramillo is set to be arraigned July 7. He is facing a new attempted murder charge in a separate case.

Castro received a stipulated sentence of four years of supervised probation for his complicity in the attack, and Arellano was sentenced to 20 years in the Department of Corrections.  Mobley reportedly died by suicide on Nov. 16, 2023.

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