Shane Goldsby, 26, was captured on video punching and stomping on the head of his cellmate, 70-year-old Robert Munger, in June 2020, the Spokesman-Review reported.
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Munger died several days later.
Goldsby has been sentenced to more than 24 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder, and expressing remorse in court to Munger's family.
"I'm ashamed of my actions, I was put into a situation that I don't wish on nobody," he said, in a statement read by his attorney in court. "I got a lot of fixing to do."
Munger was serving a 43-year sentence for child rape, child molestation and possession of child pornography.
Goldsby said Munger had abused Goldsby's younger sister years earlier.
Goldsby, who was in prison after being convicted of stabbing someone, stealing a police car and injuring a state trooper, was transferred from another state prison to Airway Heights on June 2, 2020 around 10:30 a.m. Detectives responded to a reported attack against Munger about two hours later.
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Goldsby told KHQ News that he killed Munger because his younger sister, who is still a minor, was one of Munger's victims. Goldsby said he found out who Munger was and requested a different cellmate, but was ignored.
"I had so much stuff going on in my head," he said. "I wasn't stable at that point. I wasn't. I was getting to that point, because (Munger) kept wanting to give me details about what happened, what he did - about the photos and the videos of him doing this stuff. It was building up."
Goldsby said he only meant to harm, not kill, Munger, and he would have preferred to see Munger spend his entire life in jail.
State Department of Corrections officials say when the housing assignments were determined, there was no indication of a previous connection between Goldsby and Munger.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.