Man sentenced to life in 'savage' stabbing of college student from on East L.A. bus

EAST LOS ANGELES (KTLA) -- A 29-year-old man was sentenced Wednesday to 26 years to life in state prison for fatally stabbing a fellow passenger on a transit bus in East Los Angeles last year, prosecutors said.

A jury found Manuel Ortiz Jr. of Montebello guilty of first-degree murder on Sept. 9 in the apparently random killing of 22-year-old Austin Zavala, the L.A. County District Attorney's Office said in a news release.

Ortiz stabbed Zavala multiple times in his head and neck after boarding Montebello Bus Lines' Route 10 on April 9, 2018, investigators say.

Ortiz was originally charged with attempted murder in the case, but the charge was upgraded when Zavala died two months after the attack, on June 10.

Zavala was a college student from Whittier, according to the DA's office. He had not been publicly identified as the victim before Wednesday.