San Diego

A man convicted of killing another inmate at County Jail in Chula Vista last year was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years to life in state prison.

Steve Edward Morrison, 39, of Mira Mesa, was given 16 years to life for the April 14, 1989, attack upon Luis Jose Mena, 45, who died three weeks later.

San Diego Superior Court Judge David Gill gave Morrison four more years, which will run consecutively, for Morrison’s four prior convictions for burglary, auto theft and escaping from custody.

Morrison’s 20-year sentence is to run consecutively to a four-year sentence imposed May 26 on the burglary charge for which Morrison was in jail at the time of the murder.

A jury found Morrison not guilty of first-degree murder on Jan. 31, but ruled he was guilty of second-degree murder.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Evan Miller argued that Morrison killed Mena with a large push broom because he hated child molesters. Mena was in custody on a probation violation of a child-molestation conviction.

Mena was struck six to 10 times, said inmates who testified at the trial, and he suffered a fractured skull and brain damage.

Gill also fined Morrison $400.

Miller said crowding at the jail was not necessarily a factor in the slaying.