Man pleads guilty to brutal murder of fellow inmate inside Michigan prison

MILAN, Mich. (FOX 2) - A federal inmate pleaded guilty Thursday in the 2019 murder of another inmate inside a Michigan prison.

Castro, 42, is accused of working with two other inmates, Jason Kechego, 41, and Adam Taylor Wright, 42, to kill Christian Maire at Milan Correctional Facility on Jan. 2, 2019.

He repeatedly stabbed Maire while Kechego and Wright kicked and stomped him in the head. Castro and the other men then threw Maire’s body down a flight of stairs. Maire died from multiple stab wounds and blunt force trauma to the head from being thrown down the stairs. He had been stabbed 28 times.

Authorities say the men also assaulted and seriously injured three other Milan inmates during their rampage.     

"This savage crime deserves the most serious of consequences. My office is committed to preventing violence wherever it occurs. These convictions show that we will not turn a blind eye to this type of conduct and will aggressively prosecute violence within our prisons," said U.S. Attorney Dawn Ison.

In 2022, Wright pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to just over 24 years in prison. Kechego was convicted at trial of second-degree murder and sentenced to 28 years in prison.

At that same trial, the jury was unable to agree on a verdict for Castro, and a mistrial was declared. Castro now faces up to lie in prison. He is already serving 42 years for a 2017 drug trafficking conviction.