UTICA (AP) -- A New York state prison inmate has pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing another prisoner last year after the other man slapped him in front of other inmates.
Jose Rodriguez pleaded guilty Monday in a Utica courtroom to first-degree manslaughter.
The 56-year Rodriguez admitted to using a homemade knife to stab 40-year-old Frederick Velez of New York City at Oneida Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in Rome, on April 24, 2009.
Rodriguez said he wanted to fight Velez because Velez had humiliated him by slapping the side of his face.
Rodriguez was initially charged with second-degree murder.
He's serving 25 years to life for attempting to kill a police officer in New York City in the 1980s.
Rodriguez faces 15 additional years in prison when he's sentenced Oct. 6.
Read more on this story in the Utica Observer-Dispatch.
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