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For months, officials believed that 62-year-old Rolando Cardona-Gueton committed suicide inside his Gunnison prison cell.

It wasn't until the man's cellmate, Steven Douglas Crutcher, penned a letter to the Sanpete County attorney — where he allegedly confessed to killing Cardona-Gueton — that the probe became a homicide investigation, according to recently filed court documents.

Now, the man's defense attorneys are trying to keep that letter out of an upcoming trial for Crutcher, who is facing the death penalty for the April 2013 murder.

Crutcher's letter, which was sent to County Attorney Brody Kiesel in July 2013, is sealed to the public in court records. But prosecutors say in court filings that the letter contains a confession from Crutcher, admitting that he strangled Cardona-Gueton with a ligature.

Keisel also asked 6th District Judge Wallace Lee in an April filing to take notice that the date of the alleged murder — April 20 — is Adolf Hitler's birthday.

Keisel wrote that he has asked the judge to note this because Crutcher's letter "contain[s] racial epithets and white supremacist slang and [Crutcher's] description of himself as a 'neo-Nazi skinhead.' "

Keisel also stated in court filings that Crutcher wrote in the letter that he killed his cellmate to get "his bolts."

"At trial, the state will argue that 'the bolts' are 'Schutzstaffel bolts,' which white supremacist gang members use to identify themselves," Keisel wrote, apparently referring to tattoos.

But Crutcher's attorney, Edward Brass, argued in court papers filed in September that jurors should not be able to see Crutcher's initial letter or a subsequent letter intercepted months later that also allegedly contained a confession.

The defense attorney argued that the alleged confessions were coerced because Crutcher had been placed in "restrictive isolation" in the prison for weeks after Cardona-Gueton's death. He further argued that his client had asked for an attorney when he was initially interviewed as a witness on the day of the death, but wasn't appointed an attorney until he was charged with aggravated murder in September 2013.

"Mr. Crutcher should have been appointed counsel from the moment he asked for one," Brass wrote. "... Instead, he was placed in restrictive isolation where he was allowed out of his cell for 15 minutes to shower three times a week. After six weeks of this, he began to initiate contact with the state."

But in a response filed Wednesday, Assistant Utah Attorney General Daryl Bell wrote that Crutcher was not placed in more isolated conditions because of Cardon-Gueton's death, but because of "other incidents" that Crutcher was involved in. (The defendant was charged in November 2013 with aggravated assault by a prisoner and other counts in connection to an unspecified July 2013 incident, according to court records.)

Bell said Crutcher initially told an investigator that his cellmate had killed himself, and claimed that he had only asked for an attorney originally because he feared he would get in trouble for not reporting the suicide earlier. The prosecutor said that the letter was not coerced, and that because Crutcher was not a homicide suspect at that time, he had no inherent right to state-appointed counsel.

The judge heard arguments on this issue on Friday, but made no immediate ruling. He said that he would issue a written ruling later, and set a scheduling conference for Thursday in the case.

Crutcher's case is expected to go to trial on April 18, 2016 and continue through May 20. The alleged killing qualifies as a death-penalty eligible crime because it was committed inside of a prison, according to Keisel.

Keisel said last year that a bedsheet torn into strips and braided together was used to kill Cardona-Gueton, who had been at the prison since 2011, serving time for theft and drug distribution.

The county attorney said the two inmates had shared a cell together for just a few days before the alleged murder occurred.

Crutcher is currently serving a sentence of up to life in prison for an 2009 aggravated kidnapping conviction, according to court records.

According to The Associated Press, Crutcher attempted to escape the Iron County Jail in June 2009 by cornering a deputy and threatening to detonate a bomb if he wasn't released. It was later discovered that the "bomb" was fashioned from toilet paper rolls, headphone wires and a pencil eraser.

Crutcher was at the jail at the time on suspicion of stealing a car. He pleaded guilty that year to second-degree felony theft by receiving stolen property in Cedar City and was sentenced to another one to 15 years at the prison.

jmiller@sltrib.com Twitter: @jm_miller