Alberto Cortez sentenced to life in prison without parole; Monterey County DA’s Office
SALINAS, Calif. (KION-TV) — The Monterey County District Attorney’s office announced Wednesday that 32-year-old Salinas Valley State Prison inmate, Alberto Cortez, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder with a special circumstance of multiple murder.
According to the DA’s office, Cortez was also convicted of assault by a life prisoner with a deadly weapon, as well as convicted of personally using a deadly/dangerous weapon to commit the crime.
The DA’s office says that Cortez admitted to having been previously convicted for six “strikes” under California’s Three Strikes Law, which also includes a prior conviction for murder.
On January 12, 2018, officers saw blood smeared on 19-year-old Jose Alcantar-Ortega’s window as well as leaking out from beneath his cell door, and when the officers approached the cell, they saw Alcantar-Ortega’s body lying in a pool of blood on the floor, according to the DA’s office.
The DA’s office said that Cortez and a different inmate were standing at the back of Alcantar-Ortega’s cell and two made weapons were found flushed down the toilet.
“While Alcantar-Ortega had over 70 stab wounds to his body, most of them to his back, head and neck area, inmates Cortez and Romero did not have any injuries and their hands and clothes were covered in the victim’s blood,” wrote the DA’s office in a press release.
Cortez was serving a 50-year term to life for the 2011 murder of Jose Calderon Cisneros in Castroville, and was previously convicted of criminal gang activity for that murder.
Prior to this, the DA’s office said that Cortez had been serving a sentence for assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer and criminal gang activity while awaiting trial on the Castroville murder.
Salinas Valley State Prison Investigates Inmate Death as Homicide
An inmate death at Salinas Valley State Prison is being investigated as a homicide.
Authorities said prison staff responded to a disturbance inside a Facility B housing cell on Friday, January 12 around 11:20 a.m. Staff found inmate, 19-year-old Jose Alcantar-Ortega lying on the floor with several stab wounds.
Jose Alcantar-Ortega pictured below
Two suspects were removed from the cell without incident, and two inmate-manufactured weapons were recovered at the scene,” said Lt. E. Mazariegos.
Alcantar-Ortega was stabbed in the head, neck, and upper chest. He was taken to an outside hospital for treatment where he died Monday.
26-year-old Alberto Cortez and 25-year-old Jaime Romero have been named the suspects. The two men will be held in SVSP’s Administration Investigation Unit as the incident is investigated.
Left: Alberto Cortez, Right: Jaime Romero
Alcantar-Ortega was serving 16 years in state prison for two counts of second-degree robbery. He was scheduled to parole in 2034.
Cortez was arrested in Monterey County in 2014 and was suppose to serve 35 years to life with the possibility of parole for first-degree murder.
Romero was arrested in San Mateo County and was suppose to serve 17 years, for assault with a semiautomatic firearm, resisting a peace officer resulting in death or serious injury, and posses/own firearm by a felon or addict.
