4-7-2007 Indiana:
PENDLETON, Ind. -- An inmate at the Pendleton Correctional Facility who had been convicted of molesting a child was found dead in his cell Friday afternoon.
Kent D. McDonald, 44, of North Vernon, was serving a sentence for child molestation and theft out of Jennings County. He was not eligible for release until 2030.
McDonald was housed in cellblock D, which houses 48 inmates and has an open common area, officials said. Inmates are locked in their cells from 11 p.m. until 4:30 a.m. each day, according to Indiana State Police.
An autopsy will be performed on McDonald on Monday at Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie.
Detective Bob May, the state police's lead investigator on the case, declined comment late Friday, saying he had yet to interview inmates concerning McDonald's death.
"All I can say is that we're conducting a death investigation," he said.
Potter said the state police's crime scene investigation team was called to the prison, and the facility was on a temporary, "modified lockdown" until McDonald's body was removed.
McDonald had been a Pendleton inmate since June 17, 2005, having transferred from the Westville Correctional Facility in northwest Indiana.
He was charged with three counts of child molesting in December 2002 in Jennings County and had a projected release date of December 2030, according to the Indiana Department of Correction. ..more.. by The Indy Channel
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Pendleton inmate’s death being investigated as homicide
4-7-2007 Indiana:
A Pendleton Correctional Facility inmate likely didn’t die of natural causes, but investigators are stopping short of formally labeling his death a homicide until an autopsy is performed.
Indiana State Police Detective Bob May said his department was treating the death investigation of 44-year-old Kent D. McDonald, of Madison, Ind., as homicide pending autopsy results.
“We need the cause of death before we concentrate on an avenue of investigation,” May said. “It doesn’t look accidental. There’s blood involved. The position of the body — nothing looked natural and nothing looked suicidal about it.”
Prison staff found McDonald early Friday afternoon, lying on his lower bunk in the cell he shared with an another inmate, according to Neil Potter, prison spokesman.
“He was obviously well expired when they found him,” May said. “We are investigating this as a homicide until the medical examiner tells us it’s not.”
McDonald was charged with three counts of child molesting, one Class A felony and two Class C felonies, in December 2002 in Jennings Circuit Court. His projected release date was December 2030, according to the Indiana Department of Correction. The circumstances surrounding the crimes weren’t immediately known.
An autopsy on McDonald’s body is scheduled to be performed Monday at Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie.
“It doesn’t look like natural causes,” said May, adding there weren’t any obvious indications that McDonald took his own life. “But you know what? I could be wrong, but I doubt it.”
May and Indiana Department of Correction Investigator Mike Raines are the lead detectives in the case.
If McDonald’s death is ruled a homicide, a possible motive could be tied to why he was sentenced to over two decades behind bars.
“Child molesters have a difficult time in prison, and that probably has something to do with it,” he said. “You really don’t want to go to prison as a child molester and be identified as that.”
But May added that McDonald “was very well liked. He had several friends in there.”
McDonald was housed in a 48-inmate cell block with an open, common area, said ISP Sgt. Mike Burns, Pendleton Post spokesman. Prisoners were locked in their cells only from 11 p.m. to 4:30 a.m.
May said McDonald’s cellmate and another inmate were transferred out of the cell block and are now being housed in another part of the prison. Neither inmate’s name was released.
May said McDonald’s cellmate was moved because the cell was being treated as a crime scene. He wouldn’t elaborate on why the second inmate was relocated.
McDonald had been a Pendleton inmate since June 17, 2005, having transferred from the Westville Correctional Facility in northwest Indiana. ..more.. by Shawn McGrath
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UPDATE: Prison inmate’s death ruled homicide
4-9-2007 Indiana:
The Madison County Coroner’s Office has officially ruled the death of 44-year-old Kent D. McDonald a homicide.
Ned Dunnichay, Madison County’s coroner, said McDonald, a convicted child molester serving time at the Pendleton Correctional Facility, died of blunt-force injuries to the head and chest.
Dunnichay said he doesn’t know what type of object may have caused McDonald’s fatal injuries.
“Not at this point,” he said. “That’s unclear until I get more information from the state police.”
Indiana State Police Detective Bob May, the lead investigator in the case, said no arrests have been made in connection with the slaying.
“We have two people of interest that we’re concentrating on,” he said. “We’re actively going to pursue an arrest warrant — or warrants — in this case.”
May said Saturday that McDonald’s cellmate and another inmate were transferred out of the cell block and are now being housed in another part of the prison. Neither inmate’s name was released, but May confirmed these are the two people of interest.
Prison staff found McDonald early Friday afternoon, lying on his lower bunk in his shared cell, according to prison officials.
McDonald was housed in a 48-inmate cell block with an open, common area, according ISP Sgt. Mike Burns, Pendleton Post spokesman. Prisoners were locked in their cells only from 11 p.m. to 4:30 a.m.
May said they are still investigating what was used to kill McDonald.
“I don’t think there was a weapon, but I don’t know,” May said. “There was definitely an instrument of destruction used, but that could be your hands.”
McDonald had been a Pendleton inmate since June 17, 2005, having been transferred from the Westville Correctional Facility in northwest Indiana.
McDonald was charged with three counts of child molesting, one Class A felony and two Class C felonies, in December 2002 in Jennings Circuit Court. His projected release date was December 2030, according to the Indiana Department of Correction. The circumstances surrounding the crimes weren’t immediately known.
McDonald was born in Madison, but had spent most of his life in North Vernon.
May reiterated that the possible motive in McDonald’s slaying could be tied to his child molestation convictions.
“That’s the most likely (reason),” he said, but added that McDonald did have several friends at the facility. “They don’t make too many close friends in prison, but he had a few in there.” ..more.. by SHAWN MCGRATH
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9:45 p.m.: Investigator: Inmate may have been slain by white supremacists
4-11-2007 Indiana:
A convicted child molester killed at the Pendleton Correctional Facility was the target of two white supremacist gang members, according to the lead investigator in the case.
Indiana State Police Detective Bob May said during a probable cause hearing on Monday that 44-year-old Kent D. McDonald, a white male, was beaten to death and discovered lying in a pool of his own blood.
“McDonald appeared to be lying face-down on his bunk surrounded by a pool of blood with a pillow case over his head that was slightly twisted around his neck,” May told Madison County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jim Nave during the hearing to obtain the pair of search warrants.
“Also, it appeared he had been hog-tied, with his hands behind his back to his ankles,” May testified. “However, there was no ropes or any binding restraints at the time he was discovered by (Indiana Department of Correction) staff and rigor mortis had set in when I saw him.”
The hearing in Madison Circuit Court was to get warrants to obtain possible DNA evidence from a pair of purported Aryan Brotherhood members: McDonald’s cellmate, Clay M. Howard, 24, and 21-year-old Paul M. Rayle.
Circuit Court Judge Fredrick Spencer approved the warrants to get hair, blood, saliva and finger-nail scrapings. Spencer ordered the two to be transported to Saint John’s Medical Center on Tuesday to have the potential evidence collected.
While both men are labeled as suspects in McDonald’s death according to the warrants, no charges have been filed against either man.
“That case is still under investigation and we’ve not received any additional information from the state police,” Madison County Prosecutor Thomas Broderick Jr. said late Tuesday. “So we’re just waiting for that investigation to be completed so we can review it and make decisions on what we’re going to do.”
May said during the hearing that Howard suffered hand injuries that may be connected to McDonald’s death, and Rayle and Howard had argued with McDonald in the past.
“Mr. Howard had injuries to the knuckles of his hands,” May said during the hearing. “Also, he had bruising and scratches to his upper torso. Mr. Rayle also had ... knuckles (that) were scraped.
“They had several arguments before (McDonald’s) death.”
The detective said Rayle’s and Howard’s alleged ties to white supremacy groups may have been the motive behind McDonald’s killing.
“They’re members of the Aryan Brotherhood or Aryan Nation and white supremacists,” May said. “They have a pact to kill child molesters.”
When investigators searched the cell McDonald and Howard shared, they discovered correspondence and “news clippings” about other child molesters that Howard “might possibly be on the lookout for while he’s in the DOC,” May said.
However, none of the news clippings were about McDonald, he said.
“The first day in that dorm unit, (Howard) was talked to by Paul Rayle,” May said. “And Paul Rayle told him that his new bunkmate was a child molester.”
May could not be reached for comment late Tuesday.
The cellblock where the three men were living houses 48 men with a common, shared area. The cells are locked from 11 p.m. to 4:30 a.m., but otherwise the inmates are free to roam. Howard and Rayle have since been moved out of the cellblock.
McDonald had been a Pendleton inmate since June 17, 2005, having been transferred from the Westville Correctional Facility in northwest Indiana.
McDonald, of North Vernon, was charged with three counts of child molesting, one Class A felony and two Class C felonies, in December 2002 in Jennings Circuit Court. His projected release date was December 2030, according to the Indiana Department of Correction.
McDonald was convicted of molesting several preteen boys at his camper trailer in rural North Vernon, threatening to kill one of the youths if he ever talked about the incidents. The boys were friends of his extended family members, according to documents from the Jennings County Sheriff’s Department.
For the mother of one of McDonald’s then-10-year-old victims, prison time was warranted for his crimes, but it should not have amounted to a death sentence.
“He shouldn’t have died like he did,” the woman, a North Vernon resident, said Tuesday. “But him spending time in prison, yeah, because he did molest them. (But) he didn’t deserve to die for it.”
The Herald Bulletin generally doesn’t reveal the identities of sex-crime victims or their immediate relatives if that could possibly expose the victim’s identity.
The woman said some of McDonald’s family members have been harassing her family, believing they are somehow connected to McDonald’s death.
“It’s not our fault that their son passed away,” she said. “I didn’t have anything to do with it and none of my family had anything to do with it.
“I wish it never happened.”
Attempts to reach McDonald’s family were unsuccessful. His funeral arrangements are pending at a North Vernon funeral home.
Howard was imprisoned at Pendleton after being convicted of attempted murder and burglary charges in Tippecanoe County in 2003. He was scheduled for release in January 2018. The circumstances surrounding the charges weren’t immediately available.
While Howard has over a decade left on his sentence, Rayle was scheduled to be released in July 2008, according to the DOC. In 2004, he was sentenced in Allen County to 10 years in prison on a single armed robbery count. ..more.. by Shawn McGrath
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Charges filed in '07 prison killing
1-7-2011:
ANDERSON, Ind. — Two prisoners who were named as suspects days after a 2007 killing at the Pendleton Correctional Facility were charged with murder in the final week of former Prosecutor Thomas Broderick Jr.’s term.
Broderick on Dec. 27 filed murder charges against Clay M. Howard, 27, and Paul M. Rayle, 25. They were inmates at Pendleton and are accused in the beating and strangulation death of Kent D. McDonald, a 44-year-old child molester who was found in a pool of his own blood in his prison cell on April 6, 2007.
Prosecutor Rodney Cummings said Friday that he was aware of the charges, but he had not reviewed the case. He said Broderick sat on the charges that “probably should have been filed three years ago.”
Broderick denied he procrastinated in filing the charges, saying there was circumstantial evidence and many people at the reformatory had access to the victim. “It took time to make sure there was sufficient evidence to file it,” he said Friday.
Indiana State Police investigators received warrants days after McDonald’s murder to collect DNA and other evidence from Howard and Rayle, who were purported members of the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist gang that authorities say had taken a vow to kill child molesters. All three men were white.
An autopsy concluded that McDonald died of head and neck blunt force injury and asphyxiation.
An affidavit of probable cause dated Dec. 21, 2010, and signed by Broderick’s chief of staff, Ed Leonard, says that Howard and Rayle were examined after McDonald was found slain. ISP investigator Robert May “reported that both had injuries to their knuckles and fingers that he stated were consistent with being in a fight.”
The affidavit says that several inmates told authorities that Howard and/or Rayle confessed to killing McDonald.
Pendleton Correctional Facility officials later confiscated a letter they say Howard wrote to his father in which he appears to brag about killing McDonald, according to the affidavit. The letter says, “I still go hunting. Just not your typical game though! ... I bagged and tagged a (deleted).” The affidavit says Howard also wrote, “The charges never stuck.”
“That was 2 birds w/one stone,” Howard is accused of writing. “Not only did he play with kids, he played with boys. ... How about th(a)t for earning some stripes.”
McDonald, from North Vernon, was sentenced in June 2005 to at least 40 years in prison on multiple counts of child molestation, according to Department of Correction records.
Howard, who is now at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, was serving a 32-year sentence on a charge of attempted murder and a 15-year sentence for burglary, according to DOC.
Rayle, who is now serving time in Fort Wayne, was sentenced in 2004 by an Allen County court to 10 years in prison on a charge of armed robbery.
Charges against Howard and Rayle have been filed in Madison County Superior Court 3 before Judge Thomas Newman. No court dates have been set. ..Source.. by Dave Stafford
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Accused prison killer in court
1-14-2011:
Rayle charged with slaying molester at Pendleton facility
ANDERSON, Ind. — One of two inmates charged in an April 2007 killing at the Pendleton Correctional Facility was transferred to Madison County for an initial court hearing on Friday.
Paul M. Rayle, 27, who is serving a 10-year prison term in Fort Wayne, was formally charged last week in the beating and strangulation death of Kent D. McDonald, a 44-year-old child molester who was found in a pool of his own blood in his prison cell on April 6, 2007.
An automatic plea of not guilty was entered and Madison County Magistrate Stephen Clase ordered Rayle held without bond in the Madison County Jail.
Clase appointed Patrick Ragains as Rayle’s public defender, and Rayle’s case has been assigned to Madison County Superior Court 3 Judge Thomas Newman Jr.
Newman’s court also is the venue for murder co-defendant Clay M. Howard, 25. An affidavit for probable cause says that Howard and Rayle, former Pendleton inmates, were members of the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist gang that authorities say had taken a vow to kill child molesters.
Howard has not yet had his initial hearing. He is serving a 32-year sentence on a charge of attempted murder and a 15-year sentence for burglary in the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, according to the Indiana Department of Correction. ..Source.. by Dave Stafford
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