Idaho prisoner sentenced after ‘torturous’ beating of another incarcerated man

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) – Juan Santos-Quintero Jr. has spent the majority of his adult life in prison. Throughout his adolescence and into his early adulthood, the Idaho Falls resident was in and out of the correctional system until a 2018 incident that left a Bingham County Sheriff’s deputy injured earned him a life sentence with the possibility for parole.

In 2023, five years into that sentence, Santos-Quintero beat another prisoner, 26-year-old Junior Garcia, to death. Santos-Quintero and Joshua Pedroza were indicted in September 2023, with Santos-Quintero being convicted of first-degree murder nearly a year later.

To Ada County Prosecutor Katelyn Skaggs, Santos-Quintero’s extensive criminal record demonstrated that he’s a “fundamentally violent person” who would — whether in custody or not — endanger whatever community he lived in. Skaggs, during Santos-Quintero’s Monday sentencing, asked for a life sentence without the option for parole, while the 28-year-old’s defense attorneys argued that their client’s traumatic childhood and untreated mental health issues weighed toward him having a chance to get out of prison with a more lenient 30-year sentence.

Fourth District Judge Steven Hippler — who called Garcia’s “torturous” beating “gruesome” and “disturbing” — agreed with the prosecution. He gave Santos-Quintero life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“In short, the defendant is a danger to anyone around him and the court believes that that will be the case for the rest of his life,” Hippler said in court Monday, adding that Santos-Quintero’s behavior indicated that “no measure” the court “takes can protect the community, other than keeping him from the community.”

“Unfortunately, I can’t protect other inmates and guards from him,” he continued. Santos-Quintero is expected to pay roughly $7,500 in restitution for Garcia’s funeral costs and a $5,000 fine.

Santos-Quintero’s defense said the sentence removes the state parole commission’s ability to consider whether he could eventually be rehabilitated and released from prison with enough programming.

“It breaks our hearts to have a court sentence someone so young to fix life without the opportunity of parole,” Amy Mitchell, who works for the Ada County Public Defender’s Office, told the Idaho Statesman after Monday’s sentencing.

“It effectively writes his entire life for him,” she added.

‘I wish nothing but the worst for you’

On the afternoon of June 14, 2023, Garcia, Santos-Quintero and Pedroza were outside in the Idaho Maximum Security Institution’s recreational area when the attack occurred. “This wasn’t some sort of frenzied attack,” Skaggs said during Santos-Quintero’s trial. “This was Mr. Santos-Quintero kicking the victim again, and again, and again,” as Garcia lay flat and defenseless on his back “not lifting a finger.”

Santos-Quintero kicked Garcia 45 times during the beating, at one point dragging Garcia’s unresponsive body so that Garcia’s head was up against a metal object. Images presented during the trial showed Garcia lying next to a cage in the recreational area, with his face covered in blood.

For Eddie Garcia, Garcia’s younger brother, the death of his brother flipped his life upside down. He said in a statement read by Skaggs during the sentencing that he remembered asking himself how someone could inflict so much damage on another person and the utter shock in learning that Santos-Quintero was the one who’d beaten him. The men were childhood friends and Garcia’s family took Santos-Quintero in when he was struggling with his home life.

“I remember you wearing my brother’s clothes. I remember you eating our food, and we never batted an eye, because that’s what you do when someone is in need,” Eddie Garcia said in the written statement. “Even when we didn’t want to, we took you in as one of our own, because that’s what my brother wanted.”

Eddie Garcia added that Santos-Quintero would have to answer to God for his crimes, a sentiment echoed by the rest of Garcia’s family, many of whom attended Monday’s sentencing. Yecenia Diaz Rodriguez, Garcia’s sister, said she’s dealt with stress, depression and anxiety since her brother’s death.

“I wish nothing but the worst for you. It may sound wrong, but you’re nothing but a waste on this world,” Diaz Rodriguez said in a prepared statement. “You should be the one dead and not my brother.”