Death penalty sought for Julio Garza
By James Tilson
Associate Editor
6-13-2019
MANTI—A prisoner at the Central Utah Correctional Unit accused of murdering another prisoner in 2016 had his case continued another 60 days to complete reviewing his case documents before entering his plea.
Julio Cesar Garza, 28, has been charged with the aggravated murder of Carlos-Adrian Hernandez, and Sanpete County Attorney Kevin Daniels is seeking the death penalty for the crime.
Garza appeared in 6th District Court last Wednesday for his arraignment with his attorney Richard Gale. However, before entering guilty or not guilty plea, Gale told Judge Eric Ludlow he and his client still needed to review documents from the department of corrections.
Judge Ludlow set the next hearing in the case for August 14. The probable cause statement in the homicide case states that Garza and Hernandez resided in the same cell at CUCF. On Aug. 25, 2016, officers heard a disturbance coming
from their cell.
The investigating officer, looking in the cell, saw Hernandez lying on the floor with blood from his waist up. Garza was also sitting in the cell, apparently unharmed.
Video footage from a surveillance camera showed Garza punching into Hernandez’ bunk and then pulling Hernandez off the bunk onto the floor. Garza then kicked and jumped on Hernandez multiple times, for several minutes.
Hernandez later passed away at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center from his injuries.
