By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com
A prisoner at California State Prison, Sacramento in Folsom has pleaded guilty to the 2008 murder of a fellow prisoner.
Steven "Matt" Schultz pleaded guilty today to the first-degree murder of Shannon Graling, according to Sacramento County District Attorney's Office news release.
Schultz was sentenced to 50 years to life to be served consecutive to the life term he is serving for murdering his mother and dumping her body in a Rocklin quarry.
"Schultz was scheduled to be considered for parole in 10 years for the murder of his mother," Deputy District Attorney David Brown said in a written statement. "This conviction ensures that he will never be released from prison."
On Feb. 14, 2008, Schultz was in the prison recreation yard when he approached Graling from behind and slit his throat with a box cutter blade, officials said. Graling's jugular vein and carotid artery were severed, and he quickly died from massive blood loss.
Graling was a convicted child molester from the Santa Cruz area and was serving a 401-year sentence.
Schultz was serving a 26-year-to-life sentence for the first-degree murder of his mother, Barbara Schultz. In July 1997, Schultz, then 17 years old, told friends that he intended to murder his mother.
A day later, Schultz struck his mother with a baseball bat, and used his hands and an extension cord to strangle her.
He then threw a party at the Rocklin home and invited his friends to a bedroom to view her corpse. With the aid of friends, he disposed of her body in a water-filled rock quarry.
Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.
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