A San Juan Capistrano man was convicted of murder in prison a day after admitting the role in another murder – Orange County Register

A 28-year-old San Juan Capistrano man who killed a cellmate while both awaited trial on separate murder counts was sentenced Tuesday, January 31, to 11 years in prison.

On Monday, Brion Cairo Hyde had admitted his role in two separate murders and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for the 2016 murder of Alvaro Rios in the love triangle in a San Juan Capistrano creek bed and to voluntary manslaughter for the 2020 murder in prison Kirk Price at the Theo Lacy facility in Orange.

While Hyde pleaded guilty to both murders, his conviction for Price’s murder was delayed a day to allow prosecutors to give Price’s family a chance to attend the hearing.

Unlike the conviction a day earlier in the Rios murder case — in which more than a dozen family members filled the courtroom and half a dozen spoke before the judge — no Price family members attended Tuesday’s hearing.

As part of Hyde’s plea deal, Price’s 11-year sentence will run concurrently with the 25-year sentence he received Monday for killing Rios, a Perris resident. As a result, Hyde’s sentence for the prison murder will not extend his time behind bars.

Hyde was arrested in 2016 after investigators identified him as the ringleader of a group of five men and one woman who were in some way involved in Rios’ death. While awaiting trial for this murder, Hyde ended up in a cell with Price.

Earlier in the year, authorities said, Price went to the OC Boxing MMA Academy in Tustin and shot and killed owner Fahness Lutalo. As longtime friends, Price grew jealous of Lutalo’s success, some who knew the two said after the murder. As the third forward, Price faced up to 100 years in prison if convicted of Lutalo’s murder.

In January 2020, officials with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department announced that Price had died from injuries sustained in a prison fight a month earlier. No further details have been released at this time; Hyde has not been publicly identified as the killer.