ALEXANDRIA, La. – A federal prisoner housed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Pollock, Louisiana (FCI-Pollock) has been sentenced for voluntary manslaughter, announced United States Attorney Brandon B. Brown. Jose G. Mercado-Gonzalez, 27, has been sentenced by United States District Judge David C. Joseph to spend an additional 135 months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, for this offense.
On October 16, 2021, Mercado-Gonzalez was an inmate at the Bureau of Prisons, FCI-Pollock. On that date, Mercado-Gonzalez was moved to a cell in the Special Housing Unit at FCI-Pollock where he had an altercation which ended in him killing his cellmate. When the victim was found by officers at the prison, he had sustained injuries which caused him to lose his life.
A federal grand jury charged Mercado-Gonzalez on March 24, 2021 and he pleaded guilty to the charge of voluntary manslaughter on March 17, 2022. At the time of this offense, Mercado-Gonzalez was serving a federal sentence for re-entry of a removed alien.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Prisons and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth D. Reeg.
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