SANTA CRUZ — A 33-year-old San Jose man sent to prison in 2021 to serve a life sentence for a Santa Cruz Mountains murder was himself fatally shot while incarcerated.
Albaro Amaral. (CDCR)
A resentencing hearing for Albaro Montalvo Amaral set for Friday was canceled after his defense attorney, Art Dudley, filed a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation notice confirming his former client’s death. Amaral was fatally shot Jan. 25 in Lassen County by a High Desert State Prison correctional officer as he allegedly was stabbing another incarcerated person with an inmate-manufactured weapon, according to the notice. Correctional staff first issued verbal orders for Amaral stop and get down, which allegedly were ignored, before using a Mini-14 rifle to issue a warning shot and then a lethal shot, according to the notice. Amaral was pronounced dead at 2:09 p.m.
In September 2021, a jury found Amaral guilty of the June 2020 fatal shooting of Kevin Medina-Lopez, 27. The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office found Medina-Lopez lying beside mailboxes on the side of the 17000 block of Laurel Road, near Highway 17, with fatal gunshot wounds to his head and chest. Two women in the vehicle with Medina-Lopez and Amaral at the time of the shooting were able to escape, one with shrapnel-related injuries.
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