Salinas Valley State Prison Inmates Convicted of Murder of Fellow Inmate

 

SALINAS, California- Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni announced on Monday, June 3

that Salinas Valley State Prison inmates Alberto Cortez and Jaime Romero were each convicted

by a jury of Murder. Alberto Cortez was convicted of First Degree Murder with the special

circumstance of Multiple Murder, based upon a prior conviction. Cortez was also convicted of

Assault by a Life Prisoner with a Deadly Weapon. Jaime Romero was convicted of Second

Degree Murder. Each was also convicted of personally using a deadly or dangerous weapon to

commit the crime. The Honorable Judge Stephanie Hulsey presided over this trial.

Cortez, now age 32, admitted that he had previously been convicted of six “strikes” under

California’s Three Strikes Law, including a prior conviction for Murder. Cortez faces a

maximum sentence of life in prison, without the possibility of parole. Judge Hulsey found that

Romero, now age 31, had previously been convicted of three “strikes.” Romero faces a

maximum sentence of 60 years to life in prison.

On the morning of January 12, 2018, correctional officers observed blood smeared on the

window and leaking out beneath the door of the cell of the victim in this case, 19-year-old Jose

Alcantar-Ortega. When correctional officers reached the cell, they observed Alcantar-Ortega

lying motionless on the floor in a pool of blood, and inmates Cortez and Romero standing in the

back of his locked cell. Two inmate-manufactured weapons were discovered flushed down the

cell’s toilet. While Alcantar-Ortega had over 70 stab wounds to his body, most of them to his

back, head and neck area, inmates Cortez and Romero did not have any injuries and their hands

and clothes were covered in the victim’s blood.

Alcantar-Ortega was still alive when correctional officers removed him from his cell and life-

saving measures were taken by prison medical staff, paramedics and medical staff at Natividad

Medical Center. However, three days later, Alcantar-Ortega succumbed to his injuries.

Alberto Cortez was serving a 50 year to life sentence for the 2011 murder of Jose Calderon

Cisneros in Castroville. Cisneros was walking home when he was shot by Cortez more than a

dozen times. Cortez was also convicted of criminal gang activity for that murder. Cortez was

serving a sentence for assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer and criminal gang

activity, based upon leading his fellow gang members in an assault on jail deputies while

awaiting trial on the Castroville murder.

Jaime Romero was serving a sentence for a 2014 Assault with a Firearm conviction out of San

Mateo County.

This case was investigated by the Investigative Services Unit of Salinas Valley State Prison as

well as Monterey County District Attorney Investigator Erik Morris and retired District Attorney

Investigator Jackie Meroney.