Defense Builds Exact Replica of Cell, Site of Grisly Murder

Evidence

Defense Builds Exact Replica of Cell, Site of Grisly Murder

Posted Apr 16, 2008, 01:00 pm CST
By Molly McDonough

A stage-set designer and his team of nine contractors worked for months in a Colorado warehouse, building what amounted to the most disturbing project of the designer's career: an exact replica of a Florence Penitentiary cell in which inmate Rudy Sablan is accused of murdering Joey Estrella in 1999.

Opening statements in the death penalty case against Sablan began today in a federal courthouse in Denver, the Rocky Mountain News reports.

It's a case full of grisly details, the paper reports. Sablan and his cousin are accused of strangling Estrella, slashing him with a razor, then hanging his organs around the cell.

But the defense want to capture the living conditions of the three inmates, so attorneys Forrest W. Lewis and Donald Knight hired veteran set designer Charles Packard to construct a 7-by-14-foot cell built for a single inmate.

Packard was allowed to visit and photograph the original cell.

"You can't even talk full voice in here without going nuts," Packard is quoted saying. "When we're designing and decorating a set, we think a lot about the characters. We found ourselves in here thinking about that guy. He's probably a wicked bad guy, but you start to feel different about it when you're hangin' out in here."

The newspaper reports that construction of the set cost about $15,000.

Hat tip Criminal Justice Journalists, which celebrated its 5th birthday this week.

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