A prisoner from the Illawarra who took a cocktail of illicit and prescription drugs before suffocating a fellow inmate has apologised for his crimes.
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Mervyn Keith Davidson has told a Sydney court he's sorry for killing Alfredo Pengue in a Silverwater prison cell in February 2018.
Justice David Davies acquitted Davidson of murder in August, but found him guilty of manslaughter.
Appearing before a sentencing hearing on Wednesday, Davidson said he could not remember the incident in which he walked into the 54-year-old's cell, shut the door and stayed in there for 20 minutes during which he strangled him.
Pengue was found by another inmate with blood dripping from his mouth, a swollen right eye and his head almost purple with a horizontal mark on his neck.
Shortly before the killing, Davidson took ice and Xanax, raised his fists above his head and told other prisoners he would "kill them all".
"I'm sorry for what I did. I don't remember anything your honour. I'm very sorry," Davidson told the NSW Supreme Court.
At the time of the killing, Davidson was awaiting sentence for attacking a female Aldi worker with a baseball bat during a botched supermarket robbery in Albion Park Rail in January 2017.
The court previously heard Davidson had been diagnosed with schizophrenia but was now having fortnightly injections and no longer heard voices coming from the television and radio.
Davidson's lawyers applied for him to be moved to South Coast Correctional Centre at Nowra to be closer to family.
Davidson, who is being held in solitary confinement at Lithgow jail, was asked why he wouldn't represent a danger to other inmates if he was released into the general prison population.
He replied: "Because I won't be taking drugs."
When pressed on how he could assure that would be the case, he said: "That's all I can say. I won't take any drugs."
Davidson will be sentenced at a later date
Australian Associated Press