{"id":243343,"date":"2026-04-23T15:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/243343\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:07:08","slug":"florida-prisoner-laughs-as-judge-sentences-him-to-life-for-killing-cellmate-with-pen-you-are-amusing-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/243343\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida prisoner laughs as judge sentences him to life for killing cellmate with pen: &#8216;You are amusing&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">MIAMI, Fla. &#8211; A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/us-regions\/southeast\/florida\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Florida man<\/a> convicted of killing his cellmate with a pen smiled and laughed as a judge sentenced him to life in prison Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">Marcus Terry, 43, was found guilty of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/crime\/homicide\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">second-degree murder<\/a> in December 2025 for killing his cellmate inside the Dade Correctional Institution in Homestead in 2021 by stabbing him in the head with a pen, according to NBC Miami.<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">During a court appearance on Tuesday, Terry&#8217;s lawyer, Steven Yermish, asked Judge Ellen Sue Venzer to grant his client a new trial, arguing that inadmissible evidence was presented at trial at the end of last year, the outlet reported.<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/guards-alligator-alcatraz-beat-pepper-sprayed-detainees-lawyer-says\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">GUARDS AT &#8216;ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ&#8217; BEAT, PEPPER-SPRAYED DETAINEES, LAWYER SAYS<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">Venzer rejected Yermish&#8217;s motion for a new trial and sentenced his client to life behind bars without the possibility of parole, as she described how Terry fatally pushed a pen into the brain of his cellmate, 64-year-old Ray Matos.<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">&#8220;He shoved a pillowcase into his mouth. When the guards came in to find out what was going on, he was standing on top of this man, and his hand was bloodied,&#8221; Venzer said.<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">As the judge was detailing the murder, Terry began smiling and laughing.<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">&#8220;I&#8217;m not sure why you&#8217;re laughing,&#8221; Venzer said to him.<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/marcus-terry.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\"\/> <\/p>\n<p data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\">Marcus Terry was found guilty of second-degree murder in December for killing his cellmate in 2021. (Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department) <\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">&#8220;You are amusing,&#8221; Terry responded.<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">The judge replied that she &#8220;found nothing amusing about your behavior or the death of this gentleman.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">&#8220;God have mercy on your soul,&#8221; Venzer said while handing down his sentence.<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">Terry may now appeal his sentence, according to NBC Miami.<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/florida-doctor-charged-after-allegedly-removing-wrong-organ-during-surgery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">FLORIDA DOCTOR CHARGED AFTER ALLEGEDLY REMOVING WRONG ORGAN DURING SURGERY<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ray-matos.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\"\/> <\/p>\n<p data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\">Ray Matos was killed by Marcus Terry inside the Dade Correctional Institute in Homestead. (Florida Department of Corrections) <\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.onelink.me\/xLDS?pid=AppArticleLink&amp;af_dp=foxnewsaf%3A%2F%2F&amp;af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fapps-products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">Terry was already serving a life sentence for armed burglary and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/crime\/robbery-theft\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">armed robbery<\/a> when he killed Matos, who was his cellmate for less than a week, court records showed.<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">Matos was found on the ground in the cell, lying in a pool of blood as Terry sat on the lower bunk, according to an arrest warrant.<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">Read more at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/florida-prisoner-laughs-judge-sentences-him-life-killing-cellmate-pen-you-amusing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">FOXNews.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/us\/fl\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-871f4c88=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Florida<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/crime-publicsafety\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-871f4c88=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI, Fla. &#8211; A Florida man convicted of killing his cellmate with a pen smiled and laughed as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[630,47,28,30,29,115,628],"class_list":["post-243343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}