Man charged with killing roommate at Norristown State Hospital
Kyle Samuels-Robey, 34, is accused of killing Jacob Gonzales, 25, around 9:30 p.m. Sunday, authorities said.
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A 34-year-old man was charged with first-degree murder in the strangulation death of a 25-year-old roommate at Norristown State Hospital, a state-funded psychiatric facility in Montgomery County, authorities said Monday.
Kyle Samuels-Robey is accused of killing Jacob Gonzales about 9:30 p.m. Sunday, said Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele.
According to the police criminal complaint, Gonzales entered his room at 9:24 p.m. Six minutes later, a security employee looked inside the room and saw both men in their separate beds. The employee told Gonzales to get his medication and saw that Gonzales appeared to be moving. The employee then left, according to the complaint.
About a minute later, Samuels-Robey left the room and approached a security office, the complaint said. Samuels-Robey then allegedly told staff that he beat and choked Gonzales in an altercation over books.
Staff found Gonzales unresponsive in his bed. Staff performed CPR on Gonzales, who was then taken to Jefferson Einstein Montgomery Hospital. He was pronounced dead at 10:45 p.m.
The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office performed an autopsy and found that Gonzales died because of asphyxiation caused by compression of the neck and that the manner of death was homicide.
Samuels-Robey was being held without bail at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility.