February 3, 2012

A state prison inmate is looking at 17 more years behind bars for bludgeoning his cellmate to death with a television set.

Thirty-eight-year-old Michael Boyer was sentenced after pleading guilty Thursday in Cumberland to second-degree murder.

He was originally charged with first-degree murder in the Feb. 13 slaying of 37-year-old Timothy Davis.

Prosecutors say they don't know what triggered the attack in their cell at the maximum-security Western Correctional Institution near Cumberland.

Boyer was sentenced in 2004 to 50 years for eight counts of robbery with a deadly weapon in Anne Arundel, Harford and Baltimore counties and Baltimore city. The new sentence starts when that one is completed.

Davis was sentenced in 2007 to 50 years for attempted first-degree murder and drug and handgun convictions in Baltimore city.