Former UFC Fighter Beat Cellmate To Death While Serving Life Sentence For Sexual Assault

Joe Son lost his only UFC fight and every other match in his brief combat sports career. He was finished in every bout.

Son played a henchman wearing a bowler hat in an Austin Powers movie and had a series of roles in low-budget, forgettable films. By most accounts, that should’ve defined his story: a guy who appeared once in an early UFC pay-per-view card, got embarrassed, and faded into minor character-actor work.

Instead, Son became one of the strangest and darkest figures in MMA history. He went from cage fighter to convicted rapist to convicted killer, all before most fans realized the connections.

The Fighter Who Never Really Was

Son fought only once in the UFC, back at UFC 4 in 1994. He entered the ring as a taekwondo black belt with his self-created style, which he called “Joe Son Do.”

It didn’t matter, as his opponent, Keith Hackney, spent most of the fight legally punching Son in the groin because the sport had nearly no rules at that time. Son eventually tapped out, ending his UFC career.

He picked up a few more losses on the regional circuit before more or less disappearing from the fighting scene.

Where he resurfaced was in Hollywood, albeit in a small way. In 1997, Son played Random Task, Dr. Evil’s shoe-throwing henchman, in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. It was a forgettable role in a parody film, the type of part where people often forget the actor’s name. For years, that’s all Joe Son was known for.

What Nobody Knew Yet

On Christmas Eve in 1990, Son and an acquaintance kidnapped a woman in Southern California. They held her at gunpoint and sexually assaulted her during a sadistic ordeal before abandoning her by the side of the road.

No arrest followed, and the case went cold for almost two decades. That time was sufficient for Son to fight in the UFC, secure his movie role, and fall into obscurity, all while seemingly escaping a horrific crime.

The breakthrough came almost by chance in 2008 when authorities arrested Son on an unrelated vandalism charge. As part of the arrest, he was required to provide a DNA sample.

That sample matched evidence from the 1990 case. His accomplice took a plea deal and received just over 17 years in prison. Son contested it, went to trial, and ultimately lost, getting convicted on a felony torture charge related to the kidnapping and assault.

A Month Into a Life Sentence, Another Body

• Son’s victim was a pedophile who was once convicted of lewd acts on a child under the age of 14.
• Sex offenders are typically targeted in prison.
• Son claimed it was self-defense but the jury didn’t buy this claim.

In September 2011, Son received a sentence of seven years to life and was sent to Wasco State Prison in California’s Central Valley.

He had been there less than a month when, on the evening of October 10, 2011, guards conducting a routine cell check found Son standing near his cell door. His cellmate, 50-year-old Michael Graham, who was serving a lesser two-year sentence for failing to register as a sex offender, was lying motionless on the bottom bunk.

Graham was pronounced dead within thirty minutes. According to investigators, Son had beaten him to death using only his hands and feet. Son was moved into solitary confinement while the state built a homicide case against him.

Self-Defense, a Trial, and a Verdict That Split the Difference

Son faced a charge of assault by a life prisoner with force causing death. A conviction would mean life without the possibility of parole, on top of his existing sentence.

He pleaded not guilty, and his defense centered on claims of self-defense along with his history of mental health issues. Prosecutors chose not to pursue the death penalty, and the case ended up going to trial instead of settling for a plea deal.

However, the jury did not fully accept the charge; they convicted him of the lesser offense of voluntary manslaughter. While it wasn’t the outcome the prosecutors wanted, it was enough to ensure Son spent more time behind bars, regardless of his earlier sentence.

The Sentence That Made Sure He’s Not Getting Out

When Son was finally sentenced for Graham’s killing in 2017, the judge imposed the maximum sentence for voluntary manslaughter: 27 years. This was added to the life sentence he was already serving for the 1990 rape.

In delivering the sentence, the court emphasized how Son’s original crime extended far beyond ordinary violence. Between the two convictions, he essentially has no path to freedom. As of the most recent reports, he remains incarcerated at 55 years old, having been in prison since he was 38.

It’s a truly bizarre ending for a man who is, if remembered at all, known for getting kicked in the groin on TV and playing a background villain in a spy-movie parody. The real story is much darker, involving a rape that went unsolved for eighteen years and a murder that occurred before he even settled into his cell.