The Utah man recently sentenced to 30 years behind bars for murdering his wife on a cruise ship was found dead in his Alaskan prison cell last week, authorities said.
Kenneth Manzanares, 43, was found unresponsive at about 7:15 a.m. Wednesday at Lemon Creek Correctional Center in Juneau and pronounced dead shortly after, according to the Alaska Department of Corrections.
Authorities did not reveal Manzanares’ cause of death, but said foul play is not suspected. COVID-19 was also not a factor, authorities said.
Manzanares was sentenced in early June after pleading guilty to second-degree murder for fatally beating his wife, Kristy Manzanares, on the Emerald Princess in 2017 in front of two of his daughters.
The former couple were in their cabin on the second night of the family trip, when Kristy said she wanted a divorce and asked her husband to get off the ship in Juneau and go back home, prosecutors have said.
After ordering the children into an adjoining room with relatives, the father was seen by the daughters repeatedly punching the mother of three in the head.
Family members called security and then saw Kenneth drag Kristy’s body toward the balcony, and intervened.
Kristy could not be resuscitated by ship emergency workers, officials said.
Her death was ruled a homicide by blunt force trauma to her head and face, and her husband was arrested at port the next day.
With Post wires