Montana State Prison has 2 suspects in murder of inmate

10-8-2012 Montana:

An inmate at the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge was found murdered Sunday evening, authorities reported Monday.

Investigators have two suspects in connection with the death of Danny Lee Hartford. Hartford, 53, was found dead in a cell of a housing unit in the high-security portion of the prison at about 8:10 p.m.

Investigators didn’t release how Hartford was killed, because the investigation continued, according to Linda Moodry of the Montana Department of Corrections.

Hartford was last seen alive during a head count Sunday at about 6 p.m., Moodry said. The two suspects in Hartford’s death are fellow inmates in the prison.

Moodry didn’t release the identities or the status of the suspects.

Moodry described the block of the prison where Hartford was killed as housing offenders at various levels. It’s between the maximum-security and low-security blocks, she said. It houses some general population prisoners and those transferring to the lower-level security block of the prison, she said.

The unit where Hartford was killed is monitored by prison staff and security cameras. However, Moodry said the prison doesn’t have cameras in all the cells at the prison.

“They (the prisoners) are monitored and watched, but unfortunately things like this can happen,” Moodry said.

The last homicide reported at the prison was in September 2011. Shaun Morrison, 30, is accused of beating, choking and cutting another inmate with a weapon fashioned from razor blades. Morrison has pleaded not guilty to deliberate homicide and is scheduled for trial in November.

Hartford was serving 30 years probation from 1997 on two counts of sexual assault out of Lewis and Clark County. He violated the terms of his probation and was ordered to prison in 2010.

The investigation is being handled by the Montana Department of Corrections, the Powell County sheriff’s office and the county attorney’s office. ..Source.. by JOHN GRANT EMEIGH

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Montana prison officials investigate homicide

Officials at the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge are investigating the death of an inmate as a homicide.

An investigation into the death of Danny Lee Hartford, 53, is ongoing, according to a news release from the Department of Corrections.

Hartford's body was found about 8:10 p.m. in a cell of a housing unit in the high-security portion of the prison. Two inmates are suspects in the death.

Hartford was sentenced to 30 years probation in 1997 on two counts of sexual assault out of Lewis and Clark County. He violated conditions of his probation and a judge ordered him to prison in 2010.

Prison officials did not say how Hartford died. The investigation is being handled by the Montana Department of Corrections, Powell County sheriff’s office and the county attorney’s offices.

The last homicide reported at the prison was in September 2011. Shaun Morrison, 30, is accused of beating, choking and cutting another inmate with a weapon fashioned from razor blades. Morrison has pleaded not guilty to deliberate homicide and is scheduled for trial in November. ..Source.. by BillingsGazette

DOC inmate from Nashua found dead in cell

Here we have a death which authorities keep saying "under investigation" and by now a "autopsy" has been done with no report of why! If a suicide, there are signs, none of which are mentioned here. So who/what caused his death? It is now December and no answers...

8-13-2012 New Hampshire:

MANCHESTER – An autopsy is scheduled for Monday on the body of 43-year-old Nashua resident Mark John Amsden, an inmate at the N.H. Department of Corrections who died Sunday afternoon after being found unconscious in his cell, officials said.

Amsden, of 3 Kehoe Ave., Apt. A in Nashua, had been held at the facility since July 27, a day after Nashua police arrested him on three counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault and one count of felonious sexual assault.

Police said that Amsden was arrested on a warrant issued after a woman, whom Amsden reportedly knew, told police she had been sexually assaulted on several occasions.

DOC superintendent David Dionne said Amsden was alone in his cell when he was discovered unconscious at 1:17 Sunday afternoon.

“We had no indication Mr. Amsden was in any form of distress,” Dionne said.

He said correctional officers and on-duty medical personnel began emergency medical treatment, which continued until American Medical Response and Manchester Fire Department personnel arrived. Efforts to revive Amsden failed, and emergency personnel pronounced him dead at 1:51 p.m., Dionne said.

Dionne said Amsden was being held at the DOC on $50,000 bail since his July 27 Nashua District Court arraignment.

Dionne also said Amsden had 13 previous admissions to the DOC.

According to Telegraph archives, Amsden’s local criminal history dates back to at least 2004, when Nashua police arrested him in December on three counts of forgery in connection with the theft of checks from his neighbor. He was indicted in March 2005. At the time, Amsden gave an address of 4 Auburn St., one of several he had over the years.

In August 2005, Amsden, then of Revere, Mass., was charged with violation of a protective order. Two months later, he pleaded guilty to stalking, and received a suspended sentence.

Amsden was 37 when he was charged in February 2007 with felony failure to register as a sex offender. He lived at 28 Railroad Square at the time; In August that year, he lived at 18 Abbott St., Unit B, when he was charged with criminal trespass.

In February 2008, Amsden lived at 20 Harvard St., No. 3, when he was arrested for driving after revocation or suspension, records state. In October that year, while living at 24B Fletcher St., Nashua police picked Amsden up on a warrant for assault out of Portsmouth.

About a year later, Amsden was arrested for criminal threatening and stalking. On July 4, 2011, he resided at 23 Temple St., No. 302 when police arrested him on stalking and domestic violence charges.

And about a month before his most recent arrest, Amsden was again arrested on domestic violence – stalking.

Dionne said Amsden’s death is under investigation by Manchester police and corrections officials. ..Source.. by Dean Shalhoup

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Nashua Man Found Dead in Prison Cell

8-20-2012 New Hampshire:

A Nashua man with a long arrest history was found dead inside his prison cell Sunday.

Mark John Amsden, 43, was found unconscious at about 1:15 p.m. at Valley Street Jail in Manchester, according to Manchester Police Lt. Maureen Tessier.

Attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead just before 2 p.m.

Amsden, of 3 Kehoe Ave., Nashua, was arrested July 26 by Nashua Police, charged with three counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault; and one count of felonious sexual assault, a class B felony. Amsden had been incarcerated more than a dozen times over the past decade on charges ranging from forgery, stalking, and assault to criminal threatening.

Cause of death remains under investigation, pending results of an autopsy, which is scheduled for today, Tessier said. ..Source.. by Carol Robidoux

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Nashua Man’s Jail Cell Death Under Investigation

An autopsy is planned for a 43-year-old inmate at a New Hampshire jail who was found unconscious in his cell.

Mark John Amsden of Nashua had been at the Manchester Department of Corrections facility since July 27. He had been arrested on charges of aggravated felonious sexual assault.

he Telegraph of Nashua reports Superintendent David Dionne said Amsden was alone in his cell when he was found Sunday afternoon. Emergency medical personnel were unable to revive him.

His death is under investigation by Manchester police and corrections officials.

Amsden had a criminal record going back to 2004 including charges of forgery, stalking, and failing to register as a sex offender. ..Source.. by CBS Boston

INMATE DEATH BEING INVESTIGATED AS HOMICIDE AT HIGH DESERT STATE PRISON

5-29-2012 California:

Susanville – High Desert State Prison (HDSP) investigators are investigating the death of an inmate as a homicide.

The inmate was found unresponsive in his cell on May 26, 2012, at approximately 5 am. He was pronounced deceased at 5:57 a.m.

The deceased inmate, 53, was serving his third term, and was committed from Los Angeles County on July 17, 1987. He was received at HDSP on April 15, 2010, and was serving a 137-year, plus two life terms, sentences for numerous counts of sexual battery, kidnapping, rape, oral copulation with force and violence resulting in great bodily injury, and assault with a deadly weapon. The inmate’s name is being withheld pending notification of the next of kin.

The deceased inmate’s cellmate has been identified as the primary suspect in the death, and has been placed in the Administrative Segregation Unit pending investigation into the incident. The suspect, 38, is a first term inmate received from Sacramento County on February 2, 2011. He was received at HDSP on May 2, 2012, and is serving a life without parole sentence for first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon. The inmate’s name is being withheld at this time pending investigation.

The case is under investigation by the HDSP Investigative Services Unit. The Office of the Inspector General’s Bureau of Independent Review was notified.

HDSP houses 3,900 minimum-, medium- and maximum-custody inmates. Opened in 1995, the Lassen County institution provides academic classes and vocational instruction and employs more than 1,600 people. ..Source.. by CDCR Today

Santa Barbara County Child Molester Killed in Prison

5-3-2012 California:

A homicide investigation is underway at Corcoran Prison after a convicted child molester from Santa Maria was murdered in his cell.

Prison officials say 67-year-old Gary Townsend Boyd was found unresponsive in his cell Saturday with a head injury. Another inmate is now sequestered, accused of killing him.

The Santa Maria man was serving a 72-year sentence for molesting a 4-year-old girl over a long period. At the time of that crime, Boyd was a registered sex offender convicted of sexually assaulting another child in 1984.

Boyd was living on N. Miller St. at the time of his arrest, nearly five years ago. ..Source.. by Beth Farnsworth

UPDATED: Attorney Convicted of Child Porn Killed in Prison

12-29-2011 California:

A 72-year-old retired attorney from Santa Fe was murdered at the California prison where he was serving a federal sentence for receiving child pornography on the Internet.

Robert A. Warren was attacked sometime before 7 a.m. Thursday at Federal Correctional Institution II in Victorville, Calif., a medium security facility housing more than 1,700 inmates, according to a news release provided to the Victorville Daily Press. He was pronounced dead just before 9 a.m.

Details about the cause of death were unavailable from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

Warren’s sole criminal conviction had generated heated discussion at sentencing about the appropriate punishment for the crime. Prosecutors sought nine years, saying Warren was more than the “passive voyeur” he claimed to be and had fueled the industry by saving thousands of child porn images.

The defense said the five-year mandatory minimum was more than enough punishment for a man with no criminal history, a history of philanthropic giving and a list of medical issues. Society would be better served by allowing him to pursue specific treatment outside of prison, it said.

Because Warren is dead, the conviction and indictment are expected to be dismissed. It’s unclear if the family could recoup the $50,000 fine he was required to pay.

A spokesman at U.S. Bureau of Prisons office in Washington, D.C., said Tuesday that the FBI handles homicide investigations in prisons.

Warren was charged in a seven-count, July 2009 indictment with receipt and possession of visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. He pleaded guilty to a single count of receipt and was sentenced in February by Chief U.S. District Judge Bruce Black to the mandatory minimum five years.

“These mandatory minimums make it impossible for judges to tailor a sentence to fit an individual, especially someone as medically fragile as Mr. Warren,” said Marc Lowry, Warren’s attorney.

Lowry said he had written the Bureau of Prisons twice to urge transfer of his client after Warren was attacked within 12 hours of arrival at Victorville. Black had recommended Warren be allowed to serve his sentence at a federal medical prison facility.

Court pleadings filed by the defense say Warren had a variety of health problems, from diabetes and neurological defects that made him unaware of the effects of his behavior.

Federal prosecutors cited recognition by the Congress, the Supreme Court and U.S. Sentencing Commission that child exploitation offenses should be punished severely, noting that the clear trend since 2003 was to increase sentences.

“The child pornography industry would not be in business if there was not a demand from … (those) willing to pay money for such images and videos,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Charlyn Rees said in a sentencing memorandum.

Warren’s plea agreement reserved his right to appeal the court’s July 2010 ruling denying suppression of evidence against him.

Warren had sought to suppress the evidence based on an argument that the search warrant affidavit used was insufficiently specific and that it contained false information about a prior arrest attributed to him that was of a different Robert Warren.

In Warren’s plea to Count 2 of the indictment, he admitted knowingly receiving a video more than three minutes long that showed a man performing sexual acts on a girl tied with ropes. Forensic examiners identified more than 2,000 child pornography images from 141 child victims.

Court documents say Warren had been identified as a subscriber to child pornography websites in seven national investigations dating back to 2002, but he was not arrested until the FBI in 2007 used a fake new child pornography website to capture the Internet addresses of those who attempted to access it. ..Source.. by Scott Sandlin/Journal Staff Writer

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Feds mum on death of Santa Fe man in prison

1-5-2012:

Federal Bureau of Prisons officials remain tight-lipped about the investigation into the death of a former Santa Fe attorney last week in a California prison.

But the attorney of Robert A. Warren, 72, who died in federal custody Dec. 29 after pleading guilty to child pornography charges, is being very vocal about his concerns that his client's death could have been prevented.

"He agreed to a period of incarceration. He didn't agree to be murdered," Marc Lowry, one of Warren's attorneys from the Rothstein law firm said Wednesday.

James Engleman, a spokesman for the Victorville Federal Correctional Complex, has not returned emails or telephone calls seeking comment on the death investigation. Lowry, meanwhile, said neither he nor Warren's widow have been apprised of many, if any, details into how her husband was killed or if anybody has been charged.

Lowry has little doubt his client was targeted from Day One in federal custody because of the nature of his crimes. Warren, Lowry said, was first attacked at the Victorville prison facility in Adelanto, Calif., within 12 hours of his being transferred there in July after his guilty plea and five-year sentence for a charge of receiving child pornography on the Internet. While waiting for his morning medication the morning after arriving at the facility, two fellow inmates attacked Warren, landing him in the hospital and in protective custody for much of his prison stay after that.

"I think he was targeted because of the charges against him, and that's a problem because the Bureau of Prisons knows that people entering prison with these types of problems are subject to abuse," Lowry said. "It is their duty to protect inmates they know are targets."

Lowry and co-counsel Peter Schoenberg wrote in July to both the U.S. Department of Justice and to the warden of the Victorville prison asking to have Warren transferred, to no avail.

Aside from Warren being targeted by fellow inmates, the 72-year-old man walked with a cane, had diabetes and wasn't in the best physical condition, which is why, Lowry said, U.S. District Judge Bruce D. Black recommended at sentencing that Warren be confined to a medical prison facility in Arizona. Warren had no prior criminal record.

But once in federal custody, the Bureau of Prisons does not have to adhere to a judge's recommendations.

"I think that's one of the tragic downsides of this, that the federal Bureau of Prisons should be considering some sort of facility solely for people with charges like this," Lowry said.

The sentencing itself for Warren allowed no wiggle room for Black, because Congress has approved guidelines requiring mandatory sentences that leave no discretion to sentencing judges.

An alternative for a man such as Warren, Lowry said, would have been house arrest with an ankle bracelet and no access to the Internet, children or a smart phone while serving his sentence.

"His death is a tragic loss for the community," Lowry said. "There was widespread support for Mr. Warren within the community, and everyone that came to the sentencing was mystified that a man of his age and in his physical condition could get a sentence for so long. ... The tragedy here is judges aren't allowed to escape the mandatory sentences called for by Congress."

The Rothstein firm was appealing Warren's conviction related to an issue the defense had with how police conducted a search of Warren's home.

Lowry said it would be premature to discuss whether the firm and Warren's widow will be seeking legal action against the Bureau of Prisons for Warren's death. ..Source.. by Geoff Grammer

DA: Child molester, 64, found slain in prison

12-12-2011 Massachusetts:

An aging child molester was murdered in prison just a few months before he was set to be released after spending nearly 10 years behind bars, authorities said.

Department of Correction spokeswoman Diane Wiffin said the inmate, Richard Silva 64, was discovered about 3 p.m. yesterday by a guard doing rounds during a shift change at MCI-Norfolk.

Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrisey’s office said state police assigned to the office are investigating.

“Due to evidence at the scene, the death is being investigated as a probable homicide,” a spokesman for the office said in a statement last night.

Wiffin said Silva, whose last known address was in Lowell, was sentenced to nine to 10 years in prison. He was convicted of indecent assault and battery of a child under 14 in January 2003. He was due to be released in March 2012.

She said the assault happened in May 1989.

Morrissey’s office said no one has yet been charged or arrested for the death.

According to the Sex Offender Registry Board’s online database, an incarcerated Richard Silva of the same age and with the same 1991 conviction date had two prior convictions for indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, in 1971 and in 1973. ..Source.. by O’Ryan Johnson

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Convicted killer accused of prison murder

1-27-2012 Massachusetts:

A career criminal serving life for the murder of one woman, and awaiting trial in another killing, was charged today with last month’s slaying of fellow MCI-Norfolk inmate Richard Silva, a convicted child molester.

Christopher Fletcher, 50, formerly of Leominster, was indicted by a Norfolk grand jury for beating Silva, 64, to death on Dec. 12, as Silva was nearing the end of his incarceration on sexual abuse charges, Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey said.

Fletcher’s attorney declined comment. Morrissey’s spokesman, David Traub, declined to comment on what evidence prosecutors hold, including whether it includes prison security video.

An arraignment date has not been set.

Fletcher, who the Department of Correction has moved to maximum security at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center, pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, rape and kidnapping earlier this month in Worcester Superior Court for the December 1986 slaying in Sterling of Peggy Sue Calvillo, 24, a factory worker and mother of two police believed Fletcher first ran down with a car.

Fletcher is already serving life without parole for the 1995 murder of Elizabeth Salsbury of Lunenberg. When he was arrested for Salsbury’s murder, he told police he had killed before and confessed to Calvillo’s murder, Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said.

Salsbury’s body was found behind a car dealership in Shirley. Police said she had been stabbed repeatedly in the throat.

“I commend the correction officers, administration and investigators at the Department of Correction for their constructive partnership and hard work in this investigation, and thank the Massachusetts State Police Crime Scene Services Section and the homicide detectives attached to the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office for their continued professionalism and hard work,” Morrissey said today.

Richard Silva , 64, was serving prison time for a 2003 Suffolk Superior Court sexual abuse conviction, according to Department of Correction spokeswoman Diane Wiffin. The offenses occurred in May 1989, but they were only the latest in a string of sexual abuse convictions dating back to the 1970s, according to the state’s Sex Offender Registry Board.

Silva was scheduled to be released in March after serving a nine- to 10-year stretch for a 2003 sexual abuse conviction. He’d previously been convicted of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 in 1971, 1973 and 1974. In 1991, he was convicted of two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 and one count of indecent assault and battery on a child over 14. ..Source.. by Laurel J. Sweet

Silver Spring man allegedly killed by fellow patient at Maryland mental health hospital

10-28-2011 Maryland:

40-year-old had been accused of molestation in 2010

A man accused of second-degree rape for molesting an 11-year-old girl in Montgomery County was killed Thursday evening by a fellow resident at a state mental health hospital in Jessup, officials said.

Rogelio Mondragon, 40, was a patient at the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital in Jessup. In December 2010, he was found incompetent to stand trial on a rape charge and was committed to the hospital. On Thursday, he was in Montgomery County Circuit Court for a competency hearing about 10 a.m. and he was ordered back to the hospital for continued treatment.

Hours after he returned to the hospital, about 7:30 p.m., Maryland State Police were called to his room, where Mondragon’s body was found by hospital staff, police said.

He was pronounced dead at the scene. His body has been taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for an autopsy.

Maryland State Police say Andre Mayo, 46, who also is a patient at the hospital, killed Mondragon. Mayo is charged with first- and second-degree murder for Mondragon’s death. It was not immediately clear why Mayo was admitted to the institution.

It is the second time in eight days and the third time in 13 months that one patient at the facility has killed another.

All three killings involved Montgomery County patients.

On Oct. 21, 24-year-old Vitaly Davydov, of North Potomac, was arrested on the suspicion that he killed his roommate, David Rico-Noyola, 22, of Anne Arundel County. In 2007, Davydov pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Bethesda psychiatrist Wayne S. Fenton in North Bethesda. He has been hospitalized since.

On Sept. 26, 2010, 51-year-old El Soundani El-Wahhabi, of Baltimore, was arrested for the first-degree murder of Susan Sachs, 45, of Chevy Chase, a fellow patient. Sachs was found face-down on her bed, strangled to death. Sachs was hospitalized at Perkins after being found not competent to stand trial for the 2004 beating death of psychiatrist Joyce Hadl, 71, of Chevy Chase. Hadl was Sachs’ landlord at the time of her death.

“The events at the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital over the last week are tragic and unacceptable,” Maryland Department of Mental Health and Hygiene Secretary Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein said in a written statement Friday. “Hospitals are places for healing, not violence. Perkins Hospital has taken many steps to strengthen the safety of its environment, but more needs to be done.”

Sharfstein held a meeting in Baltimore on Friday to discuss ways to improve patient and staff safety.

Police said Mayo approached a hospital security staff member and gave details of the assault on Mondragon while other hospital employees were moving patients off the floor for the investigation. Video surveillance tapes show Mayo entering the victim’s room on two occasions within a half hour.

Police investigators were at the hospital throughout the night conducting interviews and reviewing evidence.

A motive for the homicide has not been established, police said. ..Source.. by Danielle E. Gaines, Staff Writer

Sex, lies, and dead inmate cover up at Warren Correctional Institution?

11-12-2010 Ohio:

They say if you live by the sword, you die by the sword. But a metaphorical expression is certainly the last phrase that the grieving family of Steven Roger Smith, Jr. wants to hear. They held his funeral service on Wednesday November 10th, 2010.

Smith had been incarcerated since 2007. He was serving an 18-year sentence for manslaughter and tampering with evidence which also included a gun specification. Rumors resurfaced at Smith's funeral that he was wrongly convicted of the murder.

Smith was found dead on Halloween Day. The preliminary ruling of his death is suicide according to Warren Correctional Institution's public information officer, Julia Walburn.

Walburn stated that the incident is still under investigation by the institution and Ohio Safety Highway patrol.

Bradley Shaw from OSHP Public Affairs Unit provided an Initial Incident Report that states "The victim inmate was found hanging from a bed sheet that was tied to his cell window railing."

Found hanging - took his own life - is what family and friends of Smith were told by prison officials. Later they would learn the horrifying news from inmates who were incarcerated with Smith, and staffers who did not want to be identified, that Smith was murdered.

Allegedly, Smith (African American), was in the institution's kitchen engaged in a sex act with a correctional officer (Caucasian), to whom he'd been involved in a relationship. Another source claims that he was not involved with the staffer, and that he was masturbating in front of her. Source claims that Smith had several disciplinary write-ups for masturbating in front of female staffers.

As punishment, Smith was placed in the hole and allegedly his meal was sprayed with pepper spray.

Sources state that the correctional officer's boyfriend (also correctional officer), became angry after learning about the incident in the kitchen. They say the correctional officer with the assistance of others attacked Smith, hanged him, then planted a bible with pictures of Smith’s loved ones to make it look like a suicide.

If you live by the sword...

Members of Miami Baptist church were Smith was a member didn't know the Steven that lived by the sword. Many of them spoke fondly of him. They remembered a polite young man that taught Sunday school, was a member of the choir, and praise danced. A former Choir Director at the church, sang a soul stirring song, that she originally performed at Smith's private high school graduation ceremony that took place at the church.

Smith may have been laid to rest, but the family and friends of Smith won't rest until they have answers. ..Source.. Franki Butler-Kidd

Inmate death at Augusta Correctional Center under investigation

8-11-2010 Virginia:

CRAIGSVILLE — The Virginia Department of Corrections is investigating the death of a 57-year-old inmate at Augusta Correctional Center.

Donald L. Mawyer of Arrington died in late July, according to the VDOC.

Larry Traylor, a spokesman for the VDOC, wrote in an e-mail Monday, "We had an inmate death at Augusta Correctional Center on July 24th. The incident is under investigation and I cannot comment further."

In 1999, Mawyer was released from prison after spending five years behind bars for a rape in Nelson County. In 2003 on Valentine's Day, Mawyer received a 30-year prison sentence in Albemarle County Circuit Court after being convicted of abduction, according to the VDOC. He also had a parole violation in 2000, along with a conviction in 2002 for failing to register as a sex offender. Mawyer was scheduled for release in August 2028 at the age of 75.

Daniel A. Braxton, warden at Augusta Correctional Center in Craigsville, referred all media inquiries to the Department of Corrections. The Medical Examiner's Office in Roanoke said Monday that a cause of death has not been determined.

A phone call placed Monday afternoon to a Mawyer family member was not returned. ..Source.. by Brad Zinn/staff

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

Death of Greensville prison inmate under investigation, authorities say

2-8-2006 Virginia:

The department's Inspector General's Office is looking into the death of Roosevelt McArthur Lawson, 61, who was found slumped over in a chair in a day room about 7:25 p.m. on Feb. 3, Larry Traylor said. One of Lawson's fellow inmates complained about indifferent treatment toward Lawson by prison medical staff, according to a family member of the inmate. Traylor declined to provide additional details.

After Lawson was discovered, medical staff were called to the scene, Traylor said. Lawson was taken by ambulance to Southern Virginia Regional Medical Center in Emporia where he was pronounced dead shortly before 8:40 p.m., Traylor said.

Lawson's body has been sent to the Medical Examiner's Office in Richmond for an autopsy. Lawson was serving a seven-year sentence for a sexual assault in Charlottesville. ..more.. : by Richmond Times-Dispatch

Inmate killed in Bellamy Creek was a repeat sex offender

1-19-2007 Michigan:

IONIA - Jimmy Wayne Crawford, a white male, was a career sex offender. On his 51st birthday he was killed in Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility in Ionia where he was serving five to ten years for criminal sexual conduct. Department of Corrections officials would not say it was a murder, though other media sources have made that claim. Crawford died on Saturday, January 13 at Bellamy Creek.

“The Michigan State Police post in Ionia came over and processed the scene and then began their investigation,” Marlan said. “The investigation is still continuing, and we haven't charged anybody yet.”

If charges are filed, the Ionia County Prosecuting Attorney will handle the case, he added.

Crawford had two sexual conduct convictions prior to 1977, when he was charged with third degree sexual conduct in Berrien County. He was sentenced to 10 to 15 years on that occasion.

“Then he had another criminal sexual conduct conviction in 1987,” said Russ Marlan, Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman. “It was for second degree sexual conduct again out of Berrien and he was sentenced two and a half to five years for that.”

He was discharged for that offense in 1992 and did not see the inside of a penitentiary until he was convicted of his final offense in July 1998. ..more.. by Ionia Sentinel-Standard

Three Tehachapi prison inmates, including two serving time for murder, have been identified as suspects in the slaying of an inmate in February.

1-1-2003 Bakersfield, California:

Investigators believe the victim, Raymond William Maxwell, 43, was targeted because he had been convicted of a sex offense and the suspects did not want any sex offenders in their cell block, search warrant affidavits say. ..more..

Sex offender killed in Granite prison

5-4-2007 Oklahoma:

An inmate at the Oklahoma State Reformatory in Granite was found dead in his cell Tuesday evening. Donald Sullivan was serving 600 years for sex crimes.

Greg Brooks, spokesman for the prison, would not comment on how Sullivan died, but said Sullivan had multiple wounds.

Brooks said Sullivan was found by a staff member around 6:45pm Tuesday, around the time when all the cell doors are open just prior to the evening head count.

Sullivan did share a cell, but so far, the prison isn't saying anything about a suspect.

The prison was put on lockdown after Sullivan's body was discovered, and remained locked down as of Thursday evening. ..more.. by KSWO TV