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A Florida inmate, convicted of murdering his cellmate with a pen, was observed grinning and chuckling as a judge handed him a life sentence on Tuesday.
Marcus Terry, aged 43, was found guilty of second-degree murder in December 2025. The crime occurred in 2021 at the Dade Correctional Institution in Homestead, where Terry fatally attacked his cellmate by stabbing him in the head with a pen, as reported by NBC Miami.
In a court session on Tuesday, Terry’s attorney, Steven Yermish, sought a new trial for his client. He argued before Judge Ellen Sue Venzer that inadmissible evidence had been introduced during the trial held at the end of the previous year, according to the news outlet.
Despite Yermish’s plea, Judge Venzer denied the motion for a retrial and sentenced Terry to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. She recounted the brutal incident where Terry forcefully drove a pen into the brain of his 64-year-old cellmate, Ray Matos.
Venzer rejected Yermish’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.
“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,” Venzer said.
As the judge was detailing the murder, Terry began smiling and laughing.
“I’m not sure why you’re laughing,” Venzer said to him.
Marcus Terry was found guilty of second-degree murder in December for killing his cellmate in 2021. (Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department)
“You are amusing,” Terry responded.
The judge replied that she “found nothing amusing about your behavior or the death of this gentleman.”
“God have mercy on your soul,” Venzer said while handing down his sentence.
Terry may now appeal his sentence, according to NBC Miami.
Ray Matos was killed by Marcus Terry inside the Dade Correctional Institute in Homestead. (Florida Department of Corrections)
Terry was already serving a life sentence for armed burglary and armed robbery when he killed Matos, who was his cellmate for less than a week, court records showed.
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.
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