A New Jersey inmate serving time for violent crimes has now been sentenced to life in prison for murdering a fellow inmate just one day before the victim was set to walk free.
Bruce Duette, 45, was convicted of killing 41-year-old Martin Sanchez inside Bayside State Prison in Leesburg, New Jersey, back in November 2022. On July 21, nearly three years after the deadly beating, Duette was sentenced to life behind bars, according to the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office.
The attack was vicious. Sanchez was found inside his cell with “severe injuries to his face,” and was pronounced dead at the scene. The medical examiner ruled his death a homicide caused by blunt force trauma and neck compression.
Investigators quickly zeroed in on Duette after his DNA was discovered in multiple places tied to the crime—including a sneaker, a sock, and even under the victim’s fingernails.
Several inmates also came forward. Two witnesses told investigators they saw Duette enter Sanchez’s cell and beat him. Another said Duette walked out of the cell with blood on him, according to NJ.com.
Surveillance footage from the prison showed Duette and Sanchez casually talking before the attack, but there were no cameras inside the cell to capture the actual murder.
At the time, Sanchez was just 24 hours away from completing a five-year sentence for theft. He never made it out.
Duette’s public defender tried to argue that the incident was “mutual combat,” claiming Duette was simply defending himself during a fight between the two men. But the jury didn’t buy it.
Duette is no stranger to violence. He was already doing time for conspiracy to commit murder and aggravated manslaughter stemming from cases dating back to 2005 and 2009. And it didn’t stop there.
In September 2024, Duette pleaded guilty to stabbing yet another inmate—this time in the neck. He was sentenced to five additional years for that assault, with a projected release date of March 2030. That release is now permanently off the table.
With his latest life sentence set to run consecutive to his existing time, Bruce Duette is not expected to ever leave prison again.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: thedailycrime1
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://thedailycrime.org and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
