3rd inmate gets 24 years for federal prison murder of child sexual abuse ring leader
MILAN, Mich. (AP) — A federal prison inmate was sentenced Friday to more than 24 years for killing a fellow prisoner convicted of leading a child sexual abuse ring.
Alex Albert Castro, 43, of Fontana, California, was sentenced after pleading guilty in March to second-degree murder in the killing of Christian Maire, the mastermind of an international child exploitation ring.
U.S. District Judge Jonathan J.C. Grey ordered the sentence to run consecutively to a 42-year sentence Castro is serving for a drug crime.
Castro stabbed Maire with a shank 28 times in the head, neck and back at Milan federal prison in January 2019, court records say.
Two other inmates, Jason Dale Kechego and Adam Taylor Wright, are accused of kicking and stomping Maire in the head before he was thrown down a flight of metal stairs.
The detention center is on the grounds of a federal prison in Milan, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Detroit. Men are housed at the center while awaiting trial, sentencing or a permanent prison assignment.
Kechego, 41, was sentenced in November to 28 years in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder. His sentence is running consecutively with a 10-year sentence he already was serving for possession of a stolen firearm.
Wright, 42, of Springfield, Illinois, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in February 2022 and was sentenced to 24 years and four months in prison for his role in the killing.
Maire, of Binghamton, New York, was sentenced in December 2018 to 40 years in prison for exploiting children after pleading guilty to coercing girls to engage in sexual activity on a website.
