Malik Pryor appears in Bexar County, Texas, court on a murder charge (KSAT/YouTube).
A Texas man has learned his fate for strangling his neighbor to death with an electrical cord and leaving the victim”s body out in the open.
Malik Pryor, 29, received a 99-year prison sentence for the “brutal” strangling of 39-year-old Jarrod Papen in 2022, announced the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office. This followed Pryor’s conviction for murder earlier in the week.
According to Papen’s partner, Michael Simek, who testified against Pryor during the trial, Papen left his apartment on May 14, 2022, and never came back. The district attorney’s office noted that Papen and Pryor had engaged in “several verbal disputes” before that day.
Simek noticed a pack of cigarettes belonging to Papen a few feet from their front door, which he found odd, as per an arrest affidavit reported by San Antonio-based ABC affiliate KSAT. He reported his partner missing the day after he disappeared.
Pryor’s girlfriend was the one who uncovered where Papen had gone. On the day he vanished, she saw him in her boyfriend’s apartment, seated on the living room floor with his back against the sofa, appearing as though he’d “passed out on alcohol or drugs,” she informed the police, as outlined in court documents filed in the case.
When the girlfriend asked Pryor why Papen – whom she recognized as his neighbor – was in his apartment, Pryor replied, “I don’t know. He just walked in,” San Antonio Express-News reported. She had been in a relationship with Pryor for around ten years but had recently moved out.
She was reportedly there to give Pryor a ride to his father’s house, which she did. The next day, on returning to the apartment to collect some clothes, she noticed Papen was still in the “same position” and subsequently contacted the authorities.
“The Bexar County Medical Examiner later determined that Papen had been strangled to death with an electrical cord,” the district attorney’s office said. Photos of the bloody cord were shown during Pryor’s trial, as well as a bullet and blood-stained clothing, per the local newspaper. Papen also had blunt force injuries to his head.
Pryor evaded authorities for nearly a year after being wanted in the murder – until he was arrested in April 2023.
Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales celebrated the sentencing on Friday.
“Justice demands accountability, and today, justice was served for the victim’s family, friends, and our community,” Gonzales said.
