A National City man who stabbed his sex-offender roommate to death last year during an argument pleaded guilty today to voluntary manslaughter.
(Flickr: Phil Roeder)
Joel Gutierrez, who has a 2002 conviction for carjacking, will be sentenced to 22 years in state prison at a May 8 hearing at the South Bay courthouse.
The 29-year-old defendant pleaded guilty on the day his preliminary hearing was to go forward.
He admitted killing 53-year-old Enrique Atilano, who had a conviction for committing lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 14.
A passerby found Atilano at about 1 a.m., last May 15 on his doorstep in the 300 block of Norton Avenue, according to National City police.
Medics pronounced him dead at the scene.
Gutierrez was arrested the following day.
Gutierrez told police that during an argument over rent on their apartment, the victim insulted the defendant by making a comment about his 6- month-old son, who had recently died of cancer, according to Deputy District Attorney William La Fond.
Gutierrez also pleaded guilty to having a sharpened toothbrush in jail last June 15.
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