Correction: An earlier headline on this story incorrectly said the jury recommended the death penalty. The jury's verdict was to impose the death penalty. According to the state penal code, a death penalty verdict is reviewed by the judge and upheld unless the judge finds the verdict is "contrary to law or the evidence presented."

A lifer at Corcoran State Prison should get the death penalty for murdering his cell mate, a Kings County jury ruled this week.

The jury of 10 men and two women returned the capital punishment verdict Wednesday in the penalty phase of the murder trial of Robert Galvan, 37.

Last week, the jury found Galvan guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstances of torture and lying in wait, and assault with a deadly weapon by a life prisoner causing death, the Kings County District Attorney's Office said.

He'll be sentenced May 15.

Kings County prosecutor Thom Snyder said Galvan murdered his cell mate, Robert Johnson, 28, of Clear Lake, in September 2010 by getting him drunk on inmate-made wine, then slitting his throat, strangling him with an electric cord, then smashing his head against the concrete bed several times. Johnson was 30 days away from release, Snyder said. They shared a cell in a high-security housing unit.

Galvan told investigators that he killed Johnson because his cell mate had "disrespected" him by calling him stupid, and that he was punishing Johnson for violating an unwritten rule not to complain to guards about disputes with cell mates, Snyder said.

After attacking his public defender in 2011 and breaking his nose, Galvan served as his own lawyer.

In July, while being taken back to Corcoran prison from court in Hanford, he slipped out of his handcuffs and stabbed a guard five times with an inmate-made weapon.

Galvan is in Corcoran serving four consecutive life terms. Two were for a 1999 kidnapping, robbery and ransom when an evening at the movies turned into a night of terror for a young couple who were carjacked outside a Fresno theater.

The couple, both in their 20s, had just left Edwards Cinemas on North Blackstone Avenue when they were accosted by a man with a knife.

The woman was forced into the back seat and her companion ordered to drive to an ATM, where he took money out and handed it to the kidnapper.

Instead of letting the couple go, he forced them them to drive to several other ATMs, but they were unable to withdraw more money. The male victim said his mother would give them money, so they drove to her apartment in Clovis.

While the son went inside, the robber held the woman hostage in the car.

The mother telephoned Clovis police while her boyfriend, driving his own car, agreed to lead the robber and hostages to an ATM in Clovis, where officers surrounded the bank and arrested Galvan.

The young couple, now married, testified during the penalty phase, Snyder said.

While in the Fresno County jail, Galvan attacked a correctional officer, for which he got his third life sentence. The fourth was for assaulting an inmate with a weapon at Salinas Valley State Prison.

"He's the absolute poster for the death penalty," Snyder said.