Photo: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
A convicted serial killer confessed to killing his pedophile cellmate over poor hygiene, according to local reports and court documents obtained by FOX News Digital.
Ramon Escobar, 52, who was previously convicted for murdering two relatives and five strangers, was charged in the death of cellmate Juan Villanueva, 53, in September, several months after Villanueva was found dead in his cell by North Kern State Prison guards. Escobar allegedly confessed to killing Villanueva without being questioned when an officer arrived to check the scene.
"Hey, I'm sorry Jenkins. "I killed him," Escobar reportedly told the officer, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Newly unveiled court documents obtained by KGET state that Escobar claimed he strangled Villanueva over his poor hygiene,
Villanueva had arrived at the prison on February 2, just weeks before his death on February 24. The 53-year-old received multiple sentences of life with the possibility of parole in October 2022 in relation to charges of sexually assaulting a child under 14.
Villanueva was found unresponsive by a guard at around 8:49 a.m. and Escobar, who had been sentenced to multiple life sentences, as well as an additional 122 years in May 2022, was inside the cell at the time of the discovery, according to authorities. The two convicts were temporarily sharing the same medium security cell as California corrections officials planned to move each of them to permanent placements.
Escobar was convicted in the deaths of his aunt, Dina Escobar, and uncle, Rogelio Escobar -- both of whom's remains were never found -- in Texas prior to fleeing to Southern California, where he later robbed and killed five men during a 14-day span in 2018, FOX 11 Los Angeles reports.