Benton County Man Found Strangled in Cell

12-8-2012 Arkansas:

Matthew Scheile, 22, was found strangled in his cell at 1 a.m. Saturday morning in the Cummins Unit in Grady, Ar., the Department of Corrections said.

Scheile was serving a 48-month prison term for failure to register as a sex offender in Benton County. Corrections department spokesman Shea Wilson said Scheile, who was from West Fork and lived previously in Rogers, was originally convicted of sexual indecency with a child in 2010 in Cleburne County and sentenced to five years’ probation.

He was sentenced June 13, 2012 and was eligible for parole on March 15, 2013. Wilson said Scheile was Level 3 sex offender, which means police consider him a high risk to offend again.

Scheile’s cellmate, Robert Holland, 44, told prison officers that he strangled Scheile with a bed sheet Friday night and covered Scheile with a sheet to cover the crime, corrections spokesman Shea Wilson said. Holland is serving a life sentence for capital murder for shooting his parents in 1991 in El Dorado. ..Source.. by 5NewsOnline

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Prison inmate at Cummins reportedly strangled by cell mate

12-10-2012:

The Arkansas State Police are continuing their investigation into the death of an inmate at the Cummins Unit of the Arkansas Department of Correction who was allegedly strangled by his cell mate.

Matthew Scheile, 22, was found covered with a sheet in his bunk after his cell mate Robert Holland, 44, stopped a guard making rounds at 1 a.m. Saturday, department spokeswoman Shea Wilson said.

Holland reportedly told the guard he had strangled Scheile with the sheet at about 11 p.m. Friday, then covered up Scheile to conceal the incident.

Wilson said Holland was serving life without parole after being convicted of capital murder in Union County and came to the ADC on Nov. 12, 1991.

Scheile was serving a 48 month sentence from Benton County for failure to register as a sex offender. He was assigned to the ADC on June 22, and would have been eligible to apply for parole on March 15, 2013.

When the state police investigation is completed, it will be turned over to 11th Judicial District-West Prosecuting Attorney S. Kyle Hunter, who is prosecutor for Jefferson and Lincoln counties. ..Source.. by Ray King

Murders of prison inmates in Sterling, Colorado, spur state review

This covers death of Mark Frederick Hanson

November 2011 Colorado:

Department of Corrections officials will meet in Sterling today to try to understand why four inmates have been killed at the prison there in the past two years.

DOC executive director Tom Clements said he is meeting with Sterling Correctional Facility warden Kevin Milyard to be debriefed on each of the cases.

"We're looking at cell assignment protocols," Clements said. "We want to see if there are any common denominators. It's got my attention."

The focus is on Sterling because all other prisons in DOC have a total of just three murders in roughly the same time frame. .... ....

Five days earlier, convicted sex offender Mark Frederick Hanson, who was serving a two-year prison term for repeatedly failing to register as a sex offender, also was beaten to death at Sterling. Three of the four inmates killed there in the past 21 months were behind bars for either sex offenses or crimes against children. ....

Sanguinetti said DOC regularly takes measures to protect threatened sex offenders or child abusers or killers, including segregating them from the general population.

She said the inmates suspected of killing White and Hanson, who was murdered Nov. 25, are in segregation. The two were held in different sections of the prison, Sanguinetti said.

Hanson was in prison after three convictions for failing to register as a sex offender. ..Source.. by Kirk Mitchell

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Murders of prison inmates in Sterling, Colo., spur state review

12-15-2011:

Department of Corrections officials will meet in Sterling today to try to understand why four inmates have been killed at the prison there in the past two years.

DOC executive director Tom Clements said he is meeting with Sterling Correctional Facility warden Kevin Milyard to be debriefed on each of the cases.

"We're looking at cell assignment protocols," Clements said. "We want to see if there are any common denominators. It's got my attention."

The focus is on Sterling because all other prisons in DOC have a total of just three murders in roughly the same time frame.

The most recent Sterling case was Lyle Brent White, a convicted child killer who had told his sister he feared for his life before he was beaten to death.

"He's been threatened ever since he's been in there," said White's sister Elizabeth. "This totally could have been prevented."

An inmate who beat White to death Dec. 1 at Sterling told investigators the "cho-mo" — or child molester — got what he deserved, his sister said.

White had not been convicted of a sex crime but was behind bars for the murder of an 11-year-old boy.

Five days earlier, convicted sex offender Mark Frederick Hanson, who was serving a two-year prison term for repeatedly failing to register as a sex offender, also was beaten to death at Sterling. Three of the four inmates killed there in the past 21 months were behind bars for either sex offenses or crimes against children.

The rash of prison murders is extraordinary in a county that will go years without a single homicide, Logan County District Attorney Robert Watson said.

Watson said that errors in prison classifications or placements may have contributed to the deaths.

DOC spokeswoman Kath erine Sanguinetti said Sterling has more than 2,500 convicted felons, or more than 10 percent of the state's prisoners, and violent confrontations do occur.

"Unfortunately, no matter how hard we try to protect them, sometimes this kind of thing happens," she said.

White's sister said investigators contacted family members a day after he was killed, asking whether he told them about any threats. He had, she said, adding that he had repeatedly been taunted about being a child killer.

White was convicted of killing 11-year-old Centennial Elementary School fifth-grader Antonio Davalos, then throwing the boy's body into a trash bin in Littleton.

Initially, DOC officials moved him out of state, including a stint in Idaho, because his crime made him a target. But he was returned to Colorado several years ago, White's sister said. Despite his repeated reports to staff that he was threatened, White remained in general-population cell blocks, where other inmates learned his background.

Sanguinetti said DOC regularly takes measures to protect threatened sex offenders or child abusers or killers, including segregating them from the general population.

She said the inmates suspected of killing White and Hanson, who was murdered Nov. 25, are in segregation. The two were held in different sections of the prison, Sanguinetti said.

Hanson was in prison after three convictions for failing to register as a sex offender.

In another case, Jaime Rodriguez, 29, has been charged with first-degree murder in the Jan. 13, 2010, beating death of David Guerrero-Estrada in his cell. Guerrero-Estrada was convicted in 2007 of attempted sexual assault of a child and sentenced to three years in prison.

Rodriguez has been found mentally incompetent and is being evaluated and treated at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo.

Two Sterling inmates are suspected in the murder of habitual burglar Cleveland Flood, 38, who was beaten to death in February 2010. Watson said charges could be filed next month. He declined to name the suspects. ..Source.. by Kirk Mitchell

From prison to a pauper's grave

3-28-2012 Mississippi:

VICKSBURG, Miss. (WTW) — When Vicksburg native Stuart Brooks was killed Feb. 21 in his prison cell at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility, a family member's old fear was proved prophetic.

"Stuart is very much in need of psychological help," Brooks' aunt wrote in 1995, before he was sentenced for the sexual battery of her 9-year-old son. "I know that with his mentality, he would not survive in a prison, someone would probably kill him. I don't think he'll ever be able to function in a normal society."

Brooks was 18 when he was convicted in Warren County Circuit Court of assaulting his young cousin. Writing to then-Judge Frank Vollor as part of Vollor's pre-sentencing investigation, Brooks' aunt was torn — angry about what happened to her son but concerned for her nephew.

"He's going to need help for the rest of his life and should be locked up that long," she wrote.

Instead, Brooks was released after serving 15 years of a 30-year sentence, was re-arrested and sent back to prison for failing to register as a sex offender.

About halfway through that three-year sentence, he was strangled, an autopsy showed, at the Lost Gap facility. His cellmate has been charged in his death.

With Brooks' death, all those close to the 1995 case are gone.

Brooks' aunt, who wrote to Vollor, died in 1996; his mother died in 2006. The victim died in 2007. Brooks, who was 35, was given a pauper's burial March 6 in Vicksburg's Cedar Hill Cemetery, the $500 expense approved by the Warren County Board of Supervisors the day before and the plot provided by the city.

The burial was attended by Brooks' sister, Leslie Crosby, now of Madison, his aunt Cynthia Brooks of Houston, his friend Annie Sims of Vicksburg and 10 or 15 others, Sims said.

Crosby, 37, said she last saw her brother in 1993, before she moved away from Vicksburg.

Family members had not visited Stuart Brooks during his incarceration, as finances, transportation problems and other issues got in the way, Cynthia Brooks said.

"In spite of the situation, all the different things that get in the way, they are still your family, regardless," she said.

Sims, 42, said Brooks was a lifelong friend. The two stayed in touch during his years in prison, and it was Sims whom the prison's chaplain, John Newbaker, called Feb. 21 to say Brooks' body had been found.

Sims, Crosby and Cynthia Brooks said getting information from prison officials has been difficult and they've been "given the runaround."

Sims was given conflicting information about where Brooks' body was taken, and Crosby was told she was "not on the list" to be told what happened.

"No one wanted to talk to me," said Crosby. "They said they couldn't give me any information and kept saying I needed to speak with the warden."

She didn't reach him until two days after Brooks' death, and by that time what she knew of the crime she learned in news accounts, the earliest of which reported that he committed suicide. Not believing that, Crosby visited the prison and contacted the Winston County chapter of the NAACP for help.

"I believe if I wasn't bugging them, it would still be (classified as) a suicide," said Crosby.

Sims said Brooks wrote to her "a lot."

"Stuart was a character," she said. "He'd get along with anybody. You just had to get to know him. Yes, Stuart would react, but somebody would have had to be picking on him."

After his arrest on the sexual battery charge, Brooks was separated from other inmates in the Warren County Jail "due to his mental and physical problems," court documents show. He went through other inmates' things, struck at jailers and smeared things with urine and feces.

A psychologist at the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield declared Brooks competent to stand trial.

Pre-sentencing documents in Brooks' court file include the letter from his aunt as well as a 1995 psychological profile.

From an early age, Brooks had mental and emotional problems, as well as a profound speech impediment, documents show. He was first referred for treatment as a 5-year-old who was difficult to handle in the classroom; medication was prescribed. He was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and was said to be impulsive and aggressive; tests showed he was mildly retarded.

"Stuart was a profoundly troubled young man," said Mike Bonner, who was his court-appointed defense attorney in 1995. He declined to say more, citing ethical considerations.

Then-Assistant District Attorney John Bullard, who prosecuted the case, declined to comment.

In news reports following the jury's guilty verdict in 1995, Bullard was quoted as saying, "There's nothing you can do for a guy like this but lock him up." The pre-sentencing investigation, Bullard reportedly said, revealed "a complete and documented history of aggressiveness and abuse toward other children."

Vollor sentenced Brooks to the maximum term, 30 years, but Mississippi Department of Corrections released him May 27, 2010. Brooks was considered to have "flat-timed," or completed his sentence under the law, said MDOC spokesman Tara Booth.

"Under the old law (previous to the Truth-in-Sentencing bill which requires sex offenders to serve their entire sentence), he was able to earn time off his sentence," Booth said, through work, completing prison programs and other methods.

MDOC policy calls for sex offenders to be given release counseling by case managers that includes information on registering as a sex offender, she said. Case managers also typically provide information on where inmates who have no place to go can find a shelter, Booth said.

Sims and Crosby said Brooks was given a bus ticket to Vicksburg and $25, and he went to a local men's shelter. The women said they did not think he understood the requirement to register, and Sims said when she tried to help him register 10 days after his release, he was re-arrested on the spot.

In July 2010, the grand jury indicted him for failing to register as a sex offender, and Brooks pleaded guilty and was returned to the EMCF Sept. 14 to serve three years.

The facility is a private prison contracted by the MDOC.

Crosby said she purchased a transcript of the 1995 trial and the family is working on obtaining legal representation but has nothing formal yet.

"I want to see, if they knew he wasn't supposed to be there, if he was supposed to be in a mental facility, whoever is accountable for sending him there," Crosby said. "Even if it is East Mississippi Correctional Facility and not Parchman, there are still hardened criminals in there." ..Source.. by Pamela Hitchins, Vicksburg Post

Autopsy shows Wasco inmate was beaten to death

10-13-2011 California:

A Wasco State Prison inmate found dead in his cell earlier this week was beaten to death, according to a report from the Kern County coroner's office released Wednesday.

Prison officials have said the suspect in the killing of Michael Thomas Graham is his cellmate, Joseph Hyungmin Son, 40, a former part-time actor who had a role in the 1997 film "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery." Son also had a brief career as a mixed martial arts fighter.

Graham, 50, of San Luis Obispo County, was sent to the prison's reception center in June, after he was convicted of failing to register as a sex offender and sentenced to two years in prison.

Son was convicted in August of torture for his part in the 1990 rape of a woman in Huntington Beach. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and sent to the prison's reception center in September.

Graham was found dead in his cell Monday afternoon, prison officials said. ..Source.. by LA Times

Inmate at federal lockup in southern Illinois dies in apparent homicide

12-3-2009 Illinois:

MARION, Ill. (AP) — The FBI is investigating the death of an inmate at the federal penitentiary in Marion that appears to be a homicide.

Prison spokesman Jeffrey Baney says staff found the body of 32-year-old Robert Running Bear Jr. on Wednesday morning.

Baney says an autopsy will be conducted.

Running Bear was sentenced in South Dakota to 24 months in prison for failure to report as a sex offender. He was scheduled to be released in September 2010.

Marion is a medium-security federal prison in southern Illinois. It has about 990 inmates. ..Source.. QUAD.com

CA- Wasco inmate was strangled to death, coroner says

7-24-2008 California:

The 33-year-old inmate who was found not breathing Wednesday in his cell at Wasco State Prison, and later died at the hospital, was strangled to death, the Kern County Coroner's office reported.

Ruben Landeros, 33, died at 11:22 p.m. Wednesday. It is being ruled a homicide by the coroner's office.

The suspect in the case is Harold P. Cox, 37, who was brought to the prison from Orange County on April 18, Wasco prison staff said. He’s serving a 10-year, four-month sentence with gang and prior prison enhancements for intimidating a witness.

Landeros, a registered sex offender, pleaded no contest to sexual battery in 2001. He was sentenced to five years at Wasco prison.

He also pleaded no contest in 2004 for possession of drugs or alcohol while in jail. More recently, a case was opened in last month with the Kern County District Attorney's office after he allegedly failed to register as a sex offender when moving. An investigation was ongoing. ..News Source.. by The Bakersfield Californian

Man convicted of Santa Cruz child molest killed in prison

2-14-2008 California:

FOLSOM -- A former Live Oak man serving a 400-year prison sentence at California State Prison-Sacramento was killed by another inmate Thursday morning, authorities reported.

Convicted child molester Shannon Lee Grailing, 53, died after Steven Matthew Schultz, a convicted murderer, slashed him across the neck with an apparent inmate-made weapon, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reported.

Grailing was serving the longest prison sentenced meted out in Santa Cruz County history. He sodomized a 10-year-old boy in a Santa Cruz motel in 1996 and, the following year, was convicted of five counts of child molestation.

"It's a tragic end to a tragic case," Santa Cruz police spokesman Zach Friend said Thursday.

The fatal attack happened just before 8 a.m. as Grailing pushed a laundry cart through the yard at the facility, which is adjacent to Folsom State Prison. He was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:10 a.m.

Schultz, 28, from Placer County, has been held in the prison since May 1999 and is serving a sentence of 26 years to life for first-degree murder.

Prison staff and the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office are investigating Grailing's death as a homicide, officials reported. The connection between the two men and the motive for the killing was not immediately clear, and the prison spokeswoman was not available to comment

Grailing had been in the prison since July 1997.

Santa Cruz police arrested him in August 1996 for failing to notify authorities that he had moved to Oregon.

During the arrest, police found evidence at a Santa Cruz motel that Grailing had molested a 10-year-old boy there and new charges were filed.

A jury in 1997 convicted Grailing of sodomizing the child, who is the son of one of Grailing's friends. He told her he was taking the boy to the Boardwalk, but instead brought him to the Hitching Post motel on Soquel Avenue, molested him and took digital photos of the sex acts.

The boy later testified against Grailing and spoke at his sentencing hearing.

"I don't care what you're going to do with the rest of your life in prison, or whatever, but I do know that there's one less monster out there, one less person that will hurt an innocent child," the victim said when Grailing was sentenced.

A "three strikes" offender previously convicted of molesting two Watsonville boys and three boys in Washington state, Grailing was sentenced to 375 years for sodomizing the 10-year-old boy. In November 1997, the judge added another 25 years to the sentence because Grailing had failed to register as a sex offender after moving to Portland.

Grailing appealed the molestation conviction on the grounds the California's registered sex offender law, which requires some convicted sex offenders to report their residences to police, only applies to those who live in the state. The 6th District Court of Appeal ruled against Grailing.

Grailing's death is the second homicide at California State Prison-Sacramento in three weeks, an official said.

The prison houses more than 3,100 maximum-security inmates serving long sentences and those who have proved to be management problems at other institutions. The facility opened in 1986 and employs nearly 1,600 people. ..more.. by Jennifer Squires at 429-2449 or jsquires@santacruzsentinel.com.

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Sex offender slain at New Folsom Prison

An inmate at California State Prison, Sacramento, who was serving a 400-year sentence for molesting a child, was slashed in the throat and killed Thursday, prison officials said.

Shannon Lee Graling, 53, was slashed with an "inmate-made weapon" just before 8 a.m. while pushing a laundry cart, according to a prison news release. He died just over an hour later.

Prison officials said the suspect in the slashing is 28-year-old Steven Matthew Schultz, who is serving a 26-year-to-life sentence for first-degree murder out of Placer County.

Graling was convicted in Santa Cruz County in 1997 of five counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child under the age of 14 and sentenced to 400 years, prion officials said. Also that year, Graling was sentenced to 25 years to life for failing to register as a sex offender. ..more.. by Ryan Lillis

Utah man charged with death of Kingman inmate

11-14-2005 Arizona

KINGMAN - A Utah man has been charged with the death of a Kingman man at the Mohave County Jail.

Jereme Allen Cosby, 33, of West Valley City, Utah, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Peter Brian Deakin who was found dead the night of Oct. 14 in his D-pod cell.

Cosby is being held without bond.

Inmates in D-Pod cell were locked down for about 12 hours after Deakin's body was discovered, Mohave County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Trish Carter said.

An autopsy ruled that Deakin, 37, was killed by a blunt force trauma to the head and asphyxiation, Carter said.

Deakin had been in jail since Sept. 29 for felony probation violation, felony failure to register as a sex offender, misdemeanor charge of assault/domestic violence; and a misdemeanor warrant for interfering with judicial proceedings from Kingman Justice Court.

Cosby, who has a lightning-bolt “SS” tattooed on his neck, is admittedly a member of the Nazi Lowriders, a white supremacist group in California.

Cosby was extradited from Salt Lake City on Oct. 7 on a felony warrant out of Lake Havasu City for burglary, theft and trafficking in stolen property.

According to Mohave County Sheriff Tom Sheahan, the investigation is ongoing and there is a possibility of other inmates being charged, Carter said. ..more.. by Daily News Staff