Bay Area man convicted in brutal closet rod murder at Sacramento hotel ruled sane
A Bay Area man was convicted earlier this month of murder in the brutal 2017 beating death of his girlfriend at a Sacramento County hotel, and a jury on Wednesday ruled he was legally sane at the time.
Lucas Antonio Sanchez, of San Leandro, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the Sept. 11, 2017, death of Jennifer Rutter, with whom he was in a relationship, according to a news release from the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office.
The DA’s news release says Sanchez “woke up paranoid and delusional from using methamphetamine” that morning at a hotel, then used a closet rod to beat the victim in the head multiple times as she slept. The victim awoke and fled into the hotel hallway, where she was beaten several more times.
As The Sacramento Bee reported at the time, the incident occurred at the Crowne Plaza Sacramento Northeast, near Interstate 80 and Madison Avenue in north Sacramento County. After a hotel employee called authorities to report that a battered, unconscious woman was lying in a hallway and that the suspect was still on the grounds, employees interrupted a law enforcement training class being held at the hotel, and an off-duty officer detained the suspect.
An out-of-town nurse also visiting the hotel provided medical aid until Sacramento Metro Fire Department and Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies arrived, The Bee reported in 2017. Rutter was pronounced dead at the hospital.
An autopsy showed Rutter died of seven to 10 blunt force blows to her head, which caused facial and skull fractures, according to the DA’s news release.
Sanchez pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. He was found guilty by a jury Oct. 4, with the jury finding Wednesday he was legally sane at the time of the murder.
Sanchez is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 14. He faces a max sentence of 26 years to life in prison.
