Man accused of slaying cellmate being evaluated

An 18-year-old inmate accused of beating and stabbing to death his county jail cellmate will be sent to the state's mental health facility for evaluation, a district judge ruled Tuesday.

Judge Kathleen Delaney ordered Carl Marcus Guilford sent to Lake's Crossing so doctors can determine whether he is competent to stand trial in two murder cases.

Guilford appeared in court wearing navy blue jail scrubs and protective mittens over his hands. The lanky teen's arms and legs were shackled.

Guilford will be sent to the mental health facility in Sparks for an indefinite amount of time while staff determines whether he can be rendered competent through treatment.

Guilford was arrested in May after suffocating his 6-year-old cousin, Christopher Montgomery, with a comforter.

Las Vegas police determined through a classification system that Guilford should be segregated from the general population but could be housed with Francesco Sanfilippo, 29, who was facing 13 counts of possession of child pornography and a drunken driving case.

A corrections officer found the inmates' cell bloodied during a routine check about 1 a.m. Friday. Guilford was sitting on the top bunk with a "blank stare."

According to a police report detailing Sanfilippo's slaying, Guilford initially told homicide detectives that a fight between the two ensued after Sanfilippo grabbed Guilford's buttocks and said, "I'm going to take that."

Guilford said he didn't remember what happened next, but police said Guilford beat Sanfilippo in the head and stabbed him with a pencil.

Guilford then changed his story "and said that the devil told him that he needed to kill Sanfilippo, or he would make him kill himself."

Guilford was in jail after his May 26 arrest and is charged in the suffocation of his cousin with a comforter to quiet him so he wouldn't wake the boy's mother at their Desert Inn Road apartment, according to his arrest report.

Guilford told police he heard the devil's voice tell him "well done" as he left the room.

The 18-year-old's mother told investigators her son is bipolar and talked openly with family members about angels and demons and had mentioned "making sacrifices."

Deputy Public Defender Norm Reed has questioned why his client had a cellmate, considering his psychosis.

Police officials have said they are reviewing the classification system to determine whether anything should have been done differently.

Contact reporter Francis McCabe at fmccabe@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039.