A former inmate at Bayside State Prison has been sentenced to serve life behind bars after he killed a fellow inmate just one day before the victim was scheduled to be released from jail.
On July 21, 2025, officials said, Bruce Duette, 45, of Trenton, was sentenced to serve life in prison at the New Jersey State Prison, after being found guilty of murder in an attack that happened several years ago.
In May of this year, a jury found Duette guilty in the Nov. 21, 2022 beating death of Martin Sanchez, who was found unresponsive in his cell at the Bayside State Prison in Leesburg, N.J.
Officials said Sanchez died of blunt force head injuries and neck compression.
Duette was charged after police investigators found his DNA on a sneaker and sock and under Sanchez’s fingernails, officials said.
Also, officials said, though he was killed on Nov. 21, 2022, Sanchez was set to be released from Bayside State Prison on Nov. 22, 2022. However, police did not immediately detail why Sanchez was initially being held in prison.
At the time, Duette was serving separate sentences on conspiracy to commit murder and aggravated manslaughter charges. He was scheduled to be released in March of 2030.
He was also pending trial on another case where, police claimed, Duette stabbed another inmate in the neck in November of 2020.
However, he has since pleaded guilty in that stabbing case, officials said.