Bayside State Prison Inmate Sentenced For Beating Death Of Fellow Inmate
Wednesday, July 23, 2025, 12:15 P.M. ET. 3 Minute Read, By Art Fletcher: Englebrook Independent News,
LEESBURG, NJ.- A 45-year-old New Jersey State Prison inmate with a violent criminal history, currently serving two sentences for murder related convictions, learned that he will die in State Prison, after being sentenced on Monday, for the brutal beating death of fellow inmate Martin Sanchez, 41, inside his Bayside Prison cell, just one day before Sanchez was scheduled to be released from prison.
According to Cumberland County Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae, on Monday, July 21, 2025, Bruce Duette, 45, formerly of Trenton, New Jersey, appeared in Cumberland County Superior Court and was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Cristen D’Arrigo to Life in New Jersey State Prison, subject to the No Early Release Act, which will require Duette to serve 85% of his custodial term before becoming eligible for parole, after being found guilty on May 29, 2025, of first-degree Murder.
In handing down the sentence on Monday, Judge D’Arrigo ordered the life sentence to run consecutive to Duette’s current sentences, which are scheduled to end on March 8, 2030.
The Sentence Stems From A Joint Investigation
The conviction and sentence stem from an investigation that began on November 21, 2022, when Investigators from the New Jersey State Department of Corrections and the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office responded to a homicide at Bayside State Prison in Leesburg, New Jersey. The victim, identified as Martin Sanchez, 41, an inmate at the prison, was found unresponsive by Correction Officers inside his cell with severe injuries to his face and head. Sanchez was subsequently pronounced deceased at the facility.
A joint investigation conducted by New Jersey Department of Corrections Investigators and Detectives of the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office. During the subsequent post-mortem examination, the Regional Medical Examiner’s Office determined the Cause of Mr. Sanchez’s Death to be blunt force trauma to the head and neck compression and the Manner of Death Homicide.
During the investigation, Duette was developed as a suspect and formally charged after his DNA was located on the inside of a sneaker, a sock, and under Mr. Sanchez’s fingernails. Mr. Sanchez was scheduled to be released from Bayside State Prison on the following day, November 22, 2022.
At the time Duette committed the beating death of Mr. Sanchez at the prison, he was serving separate sentences out of Mercer County, New Jersey, for first-degree Conspiracy to Commit Murder, and was sentenced in 2013 to 20 years in New Jersey State Prison, subject to the No Early Release Act and first-degree Aggravated Manslaughter and sentenced in 2009 to 15 years in New Jersey State Prison. Duette was also sentenced to five years in New Jersey State Prison for the 2020 stabbing of another inmate in the neck inside Bayside State Prison. That sentence was imposed consecutively to his Mercer County sentences.