A 19-year-old Tucson man who killed a homeless man during an argument over cigarettes pleaded guilty Thursday to manslaughter and is facing up to 21 years in prison.
Paul A. Cottrell also pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated assault on a correction officer for spitting on jail personnel on three separate occasions, said Deputy Pima County Attorney Dan Nicolini.
Cottrell is facing between six months and two years on those counts, but they will be run concurrently with the manslaughter sentence, which will be imposed March 30 by Pima County Superior Court Judge Edgar Acuña, Nicolini said.
Court documents indicate Cottrell and Joseph Dalmer, 46, got into an argument over cigarettes in December 2008 and Cottrell hit Dalmer with a beer bottle.
When Dalmer threw a brick at Cottrell and missed, Cottrell hit Dalmer with the brick, burned his ear with a cigarette and stabbed him in the ear with a knife, court documents state.
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He also sliced Dalmer's chin and dropped the brick on his head.
After the fight, Cottrell called police and told them that his friend was assaulted and was lying in a wash, police said.
When officers found Dalmer in the 4500 block of West Speedway, near West Gates Pass Road, he had sustained significant head trauma. He was taken to University Medical Center, where he died two days later.
Cottrell spent several months in a competency restoration program, but is now considered competent, Nicolini said.
