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

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Sex offender found dead in apparent homicide in Maryland prison

6-27-2012 Maryland:

A sex offender was found dead early Wednesday morning in his prison cell in Anne Arundel County, and police said that his death appears to have been a homicide.

The victim, 21-year-old Robert J. Tunnell, was serving a six-year sentence. Tunnell's cellmate has been identified as the suspect, and charges are pending against him, according to Maryland State Police.

According to a preliminary investigation, about 2 a.m., a correctional officer making routine rounds at the Jessup Correctional Institution arrived at the cell occupied by Tunnell and the suspect. The suspect made statements that caused the officer to initiate an emergency response by staff and enter the cell. Tunnell was found unresponsive and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Investigators found signs that Tunnell had sustained trauma, and an item that appeared to be a shoe string was found around his neck, police said. Tunnell's body was taken to a medical examiner's office for an autopsy. ..Source.. by Naomi Jagoda

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harford County Sex Offender Killed in State Prison

Police believe Robert Joseph Tunnell's cellmate at Jessup Correctional Institution allegedly killed him.

A Harford County man serving a six-year sentence for a sex offense was found dead in his cell at the Jessup Correctional Institution Wednesday, authorities said. Police believe his cellmate allegedly killed.

Robert Joseph Tunnell, 21, formerly of Edgewood and Baltimore, was found dead in his cell with signs of trauma to his body and a string around his neck, police said.

While there is a known suspect in the case, charges are pending and police have not released the suspect's name.

Around 2 a.m. Wednesday, a correctional officer making routine rounds arrived at Tunnell's cell and Tunnell's cellmate allegedly said something to the officer that prompted an emergency response from staff, according to a release from Maryland State Police. It was unclear Thursday what the nature of those statements was.

Tunnell wasn't responding when staff reached him and medical personnel were called. Medics pronounced Tunnell dead at the scene, the news release states.

Tunnell's body showed signs of trauma and investigators found what looked like a shoe string around his neck, according to state police.

The victim's body was taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for an autopsy to determine the official cause of death.

"It is a murder and there is a suspect who has been identified," state police spokesman Greg Shipley said Thursday.

Charges are pending against Tunnell's cellmate. In the mean time, the suspect remains in custody of the Maryland Division of Correction, according to state police.

The two men were being held in a transitional housing area usually designated for inmates brought in from other institutions or being moved for some reason.

"Tunnell was apparently serving a sentence at the Eastern Correctional Institution in Somerset," Shipley said, "I don't know why he was brought to JCI."

According to court records, Tunnell had a violation of probation hearing in Harford County the day before he was killed.

He was serving a six-year sentence after entering an Alford Plea on an attempted second-degree sex offense charge on March 12. An Alford Plea means the defendent acknowledges the state has enough evidence to convict, but maintains his innocence. It qualifies as a finding of guilt.

The underlying charges involved inappropriate contact with a boy, age 14, when Tunnell was 19 years old, according to court documents. ..Source.. by Kirsten Dize

For the third time this month, a sex offender is apparently murdered in prison

Other deaths in article posted separately

5-29-2012 California:

An inmate was found dead in his cell Tuesday at California State Prison-Los Angeles County. The death is being treated as a homicide and the inmate's cellmate, Aaron Alvarez, 42, is a suspect. Alvarez, serving a life sentence for first degree murder, was placed in administrative segregation while the case is investigated by prison officials and the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department.

The victim's name has not been released, as his family has not yet been notified of his death. According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the deceased inmate had been in prison since November 30, 1999 for aggravated sexual assault of a child in San Diego County.

Sex offenders are known targets of other inmates in prison. And this death is at least the third such apparent homicide of a sex offender in a California prison this month and at least the sixth this year. ..Source.. by CDCR Today

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Suspected Inmate Homicide at California State Prison-Los Angeles County

5-29-2012:

LANCASTER-- Officials at California State Prison- Los Angeles County are investigating the death of an inmate as a homicide after he was found unresponsive in his cell Tuesday morning.

The inmate, whose name is being withheld pending notification of his next of kin, was pronounced dead at the institution at 1:18 a.m.

Prison officials have named his cellmate Aaron Alvarez, 42, as the suspect in the case. Alvarez has been placed in the administrative segregation unit pending the investigation.

The victim was received by California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) on November 30, 1999 from San Diego County. He was serving a life sentence for aggravated sexual assault of a child.

Inmate Alvarez was received by CDCR on July 11, 2008 from Kern County. He was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder.

The case is under investigation by the institution’s Investigative Services Unit and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Additionally, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has been notified.

LAC provides educational, vocational, re-entry and self-help programs that provide inmates life skills and work skills that can be used in support of their efforts at reintegration into society. The facility has a unique Progressive Programming Facility developed specifically to provide a program, free from disruptive behavior, in which personal and CDCR goals can be more readily achieved.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

North County child molester killed in prison cell, authorities say

6-1-2012:

An Oceanside man was found dead earlier this week in his cell at a state prison facility in Lancaster, where he was serving a life sentence for aggravated sexual assault of his 1-year-old stepdaughter, according to authorities and news reports.

The man, who was identified Thursday as Francisco Javier Aguilar, 36, was found dead at about 1 a.m. Tuesday, according to a media advisory released later Tuesday by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Authorities named Aguilar's cellmate, Aaron Alvarez, 42, as the suspect in Aguilar's death, according to the advisory. Alvarez is serving a life sentence for murder.

The Los Angeles County coroner's office had not released the cause and manner of Aguilar's death Thursday evening.

Aguilar was arrested July 1, 1998, after he called 911 to report that his 1-year-old stepdaughter was "wigging out," according to a July 3, 1998, article in the North County Times. Authorities found the girl bruised and injured in a way that suggested sexual trauma.

Authorities said Aguilar, then 22 and living in Oceanside, had been baby-sitting the girl while her mother was at work, according to the article.

The county of San Diego turned Aguilar over to the prison system on Nov. 30, 1999, according to prison officials. ..Source..

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dead Lancaster inmate had cable around neck; cellmate is a suspect

6-14-2012:

A man serving a life sentence for murder is suspected of killing his cellmate, who was found dead with a cable wrapped around his neck early Tuesday at a state prison in Lancaster, officials said.

The victim, a 36-year-old man whose name has not been released yet, was pronounced dead about 1:18 a.m. after being found unresponsive in his bunk, according to a news release from California State Prison, Los Angeles County.

His cellmate, Aaron Alvarez, 42, is suspected in the killing and was placed in isolation in the prison’s administrative segregation unit, officials said.

Alvarez is serving a life sentence for first-degree murder on a Kern County conviction.

The slain inmate had been in prison since 1999 and was serving a life sentence for sexual assault of a child in San Diego County, prison officials said.

The death is being investigated by prison staff and detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

It marks the second time in the last six months that an inmate at the Antelope Valley prison has been accused of killing a cellmate.

In December, guards found an inmate dead in his bunk after his cellmate passed them a note at breakfast alerting them to the body.

After investigators saw "something suspicious" on the body, the cellmate became the chief suspect.

Officials said Tuesday the December homicide is still under investigation. ..Source.. by Kim Christensen

Inmate Death at California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran Being Investigated as a Homicide

2-1-2012 California:

CORCORAN-- Officials at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran (CSATF/SP) are investigating an inmate death as a homicide.

Michael Benjamin Burch, 67, was found unresponsive in his cell Tuesday, January 31. He was pronounced deceased by prison medical officials and transported to the King’s County Coroner’s Office for an autopsy. The Coroner’s Office ruled the death a homicide Tuesday evening.

Officials from the prison and the Kings County District Attorney’s Office have named Burch’s cellmate, inmate Robert Vargas Salas, 54, as the suspect in the case. Inmate Salas has been placed in the administrative segregation unit while the investigation continues.

Burch was received from Los Angeles County on February 3, 2011, and was serving a 675-year sentence for lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14, oral copulation with a child under 14, and rape with force/violence.

Salas was received on August 10, 1977, from Ventura County. He is serving a life-term for first-degree murder.

CSATF/SP is a multi-mission institution that houses 5,981 inmates and employs more than 1,800 people. Opened in 1997, the institution houses minimum-, medium-, and maximum-security male inmates and provides substance-abuse treatment programs, academic and vocational education, and re-entry and self-help programs to prepare inmates for their reintegration into society. ..Source.. by CDCR Today

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Second man murdered at Corcoran prison

CORCORAN — Less than two weeks after an inmate assault left a man brain-dead at Corcoran’s Substance Abuse Treatment Facility, another murder investigation is under way within the facility’s walls.

Michael Benjamin Burch, 67, was found dead in his cell Tuesday after allegedly being beaten and strangled by his cellmate. The Whittier man was serving a 675-year sentence for violently raping an underage girl, officials said.

His body was sent to the Kings County Coroner’s Office, where it was determined that Burch suffered a heart attack as a result of his injuries. Deputy Coroner Tom Edmonds said he died within minutes.

Now Burch’s cellmate, 54-year-old Robert Vargas Salas, has been placed in administrative segregation in connection with the crime. Officials say Salas was transferred to the facility in 1977 and is currently serving a life sentence for first-degree murder.

It is not clear what motivated the attack. The case is under joint investigation by the Kings County District Attorney’s Office and the SATF Investigative Services Unit.

This marks the second homicide to hit the facility in the last two weeks.

The first claimed the life of Jeffrey Lynn Goodwin, who was declared brain-dead after being assaulted on the recreation yard. The 43-year-old apparently suffered a massive blow to the head and died from complications due to intracerebral bleeding, investigators said.

Two inmates — Chevalier Mills, 47, and Charles Morris, 41 — were named in connection with the murder. Few details have been released in the case because both men were placed in administrative segregation.

Authorities said at the time that Mills was serving a 70-year term for first-degree burglary and sexual penetration of a victim with a foreign object by force or fear. Morris had been sentenced to life in prison for second-degree murder, attempted murder, possession of a firearm by an ex-felon and second-degree robbery.

Both homicide cases remain under investigation. ..Source.. by Joe Johnson

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

Homicide Unit investigating prisoner’s death

12-9-2011 Maryland:

North Branch Correctional Institution inmate found unresponsive inside celll

CRESAPTOWN — The suspicious death of an inmate at the North Branch Correctional Institution on U.S. Route 220 is being investigated by the Internal Investigative Unit of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services and the Maryland State Police Homicide Unit.

Correctional officers found the 57-year-old inmate unresponsive in his cell in Housing Unit 3 of the maximum-security prison shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday and immediately started CPR until paramedics arrived. Officers were alerted after “an inmate approached a correctional officer and said something was wrong with his cell mate,” police said.

The unresponsive inmate was taken to the Western Maryland Regional Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

The identity of the inmate is being withheld pending notification of his family. He was serving 40 years on a rape charge.

Cresaptown Volunteer Fire Department ambulance responded to the call at 6:20 p.m., according to the Allegany County 911 center.

The Maryland State Medical Examiner will determine the cause and manner of death.

By law, Maryland State Police are the lead investigators in the case of a suspicious death inside a Maryland correctional facility. ..Source.. by Staff Reports Cumberland Times-News

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Inmate's death caused by strangulation, ruled a homicide

12-12-2011 Maryland:

CUMBERLAND, Md. — Maryland State Police say an inmate who was found unresponsive in a Cumberland prison was strangled and his death has been ruled a homicide.

Fifty-seven-year-old Lewis J. Thompson Jr. was found in his cell at the North Branch Correctional Institution on Dec. 8 and pronounced dead at a local hospital. He was serving a 40-year sentence on a rape charge.

The Herald-Mail of Hagerstown reports that state police are conducting the investigation into Thompson's death. No charges have been filed yet. (http://bit.ly/sCAG6j) ..Source.. by The Republic

Guards Can't Toss Suit Over Murdered Inmate

9-13-2011 Texas:

HOUSTON (CN) - Four prison employees still face claims that they let an inmate strangle his cellmate and kick him to death with boots, a federal judge ruled.

Michael Dewayne Walker was a prisoner at a Texas state prison in Midway, serving a 21-year sentence for aggravated sexual assault of a child. Officials at the Ferguson Unit assigned the 20-year-old Walker to bunk with Wilbert "Peanut" Hamilton, who was serving time for homicide, arson and assault.

On July 13, 2006, just six months into Walker's sentence, Hamilton strangled Walker and kicked him with a pair of black brogans issued to him for use in the prison work area. After Hamilton pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, the courts tacked another seven years to his prison sentence.

Walker was not the first cellmate that Hamilton had assaulted. Steven Ware nearly died when Hamilton went after him in a similar attack five years earlier.

Walker's parents, Mary Walker and Michael Spencer, filed a wrongful-death complaint in the Southern District of Texas. The original complaint lists eight claims for relief, which include violations of Walker's Fourth, Eighth and 14th Amendment rights.

"It is well known to all defendants - and frankly the general public - that sex offenders are routinely targeted by the general population inmates and singled out for harassment, intimidation, abuse, assault, and/or injury," the complaint states. Walker's parents also say Hamilton should not have had his boots in the cell.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt noted this week that the four remaining defendants - Ferguson Unit Warden Michael Upshaw, prison guard Matthew Bazan III, prison guard Jason Pfleiderer, and prison guard Leonard Laskowski - were each named for the first time in an amended complaint.

On Wednesday, Hoyt dismissed their second motion for summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity. The officials had claimed that "the law was not clearly established that sex offenders such as Walker had to be segregated from the prison population, nor that offenders were prohibited from having boots in the housing area," according to the eight-page order.

There are "genuine issues of material fact remain disputed regarding whether the defendants violated Walker's Eighth Amendment rights," Hoyt said, noting that Walker's parents have claimed that "Hamilton's propensity for violence was well known within the prison, and that his attack on Walker was audible and occurred over several hours."

Walker's parents "also claim that Warden Upshaw failed to properly train his staff, as evidenced by the fact that they put him into Hamilton's cell, despite the fact that Hamilton was outspokenly threatening to any potential cell mate."

"In light of Hamilton's well-documented history of violence, mental instability and routine need for solitary confinement, the conflicting accounts of the length and volume of the fatal beating, the defendants' qualified immunity defense fails," Hoyt wrote. ..Source.. by BONNIE BARRON

Inmate charged with murder

6-30-2011 Indiana:

Joseph Brown confessed to killing Charles Miller, documents say

Bunker Hill — Joseph W. Brown drank a cup of coffee and packed his personal belongings after killing his cellmate on June 19 at the Miami County Correctional Facility, according to court documents.

Brown, 56, has been charged with murder and criminal confinement in the strangulation death of Charles Miller, 62, Center.

Brown is already serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, Miami County Prosecutor Bruce Embrey said Wednesday.

Brown has been transferred from the Miami Correctional Facility to the Westville Correctional Facility. Embrey said Wednesday he has 60 days to decide if he will seek the death penalty.

“I will review the evidence before making a decision,” he said.

Embrey said the book “Blood Trail” was written about Brown, who was sentenced for the murder of his girlfriend, Ginger Gasaway, in 2000 in Evansville.

According to a probable cause affidavit signed by Indiana State Police Detective Mike Tarrh, Brown waived his rights and confessed to the slaying of Miller in the cell the two men had shared for two weeks.

Miller reportedly told Brown that he was a convicted child molester and Brown said he hates molesters, according to the statement made to Tarrh.

Court documents indicated that between 3:20 and 3:30 p.m. the two men were talking and Brown tore three or four strips from a bed sheet and told Miller to get in the bunk and cooperate or he would kill him. Miller tried to offer Brown money so he wouldn’t hurt him.

“If he offered me a $1,000, it wouldn’t have stopped me,” Brown told Tarrh.

Brown said Miller didn’t resist when he was tied up. Brown first tied Miller’s feet, then his hands behind his back, followed by a strip of sheet he stuffed in Miller’s mouth, according to the court records. Brown then used the string from Miller’s laundry bag to strangle him.

Brown told other inmates he didn’t want to spend the rest of his life at the Miami Correctional Facility and would be “better off on death row,” according to the probable cause affidavit.

The court records indicate that Brown told other inmates he had killed “his bunkee” before dinner.

The other inmates told Tarrh that Brown was acting weird for two or three days prior to the incident.

Miller pleaded guilty but mentally ill in March to a charge of attempted murder, admitting his role in a July 15 shooting that left a delivery driver severely wounded and Miller’s Center neighbors terrified. ..Source.. by Ken de la Bastide Tribune enterprise editor

Coroner: Lieber inmate strangled to death

9-29-2010 South Carolina:

RIDGEVILLE, SC (WCSC) - An inmate found dead Saturday at Lieber Correctional Institution was strangled, according to the Dorchester County coroner.

The inmate, 72-year-old Saverio Piazzola, a male inmate, was found dead in his cell around 6 p.m. Saturday. Piazzola was serving 10 years in prison for criminal sexual conduct with a minor and began serving his sentence in August 2005. He was from Richland County.

The State Law Enforcement Division and the South Carolina Department of Corrections are investigating.

A corrections department spokesman said that there are suspects in mind, but no arrests have been made. ..Source.. by Live5News

------------------------------------------------------------------------

SC prisons officials investigating inmate's death

RIDGEVILLE, S.C. — South Carolina prison officials are investigating the death of a 72-year-old inmate at a maximum security facility in Dorchester County as a homicide.

Corrections Department spokesman Josh Gelinas says Saverio Piazzola (sah-VEHR'-ee-oh pee-ah-ZOH'-lah) was found dead Sunday evening in his cell at Lieber Correctional Institution in Ridgeville.

The Dorchester County coroner's office said Piazzola died from strangulation.


Gelinas said Piazzola had a cellmate and that the department and the State Law Enforcement Division are conducting independent investigations.

Gelinas said it was the second inmate homicide this year. In January, 26-year-old Lamont Perry was stabbed to death at McCormick Correctional Institution. Investigators charged 21-year-old Jack Cooper with murder in that case.

Piazzola was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2005 after he was convicted of criminal sexual conduct with a minor in Richland County. ..Source.. by The State

S.J. inmate charged in cellmate's killing (Dup to record death of Phillip Kunkle)

This article is to document the death of "Phillip Kunkle." However the article also mentions the death of Jonathan Guy Alexandere, which is documented HERE (A dup posting of this article)

9-17-2010 California:

STOCKTON - A prisoner at Tracy's Deuel Vocational Institution found dead in June was killed by his cellmate, according to a criminal complaint filed by San Joaquin County prosecutors.

John Joseph Lydon, 37, was convicted previously of murdering a cellmate (also a sex offender) at another California state prison, so this new charge carries a special circumstance, making him eligible for a death sentence.

If prosecutors prove their case against Lydon, this will make the second time in three years that a prisoner at Deuel has murdered a fellow inmate in the same cell.

Lt. Gilbert Valenzuela, a Deuel spokesman, said Lydon and his alleged victim, 49-year-old Jonathan Guy Alexander, were housed together in the sensitive-needs unit designed to protect vulnerable inmates.

While prosecutors say Alexander had been convicted twice of sex crimes, including child molestation in 1993 from Siskiyou County, Valenzuela did not know why Lydon was considered a special-needs inmate.

Deuel officials take Alexander's death seriously, Valenzuela said.

"Anytime we have a murder occur ... of course it's a concern," he said. "We're trying to ensure that all procedures are followed to ensure that doesn't ever happen again."

Lydon, a career criminal once convicted of trying to kill a Hollywood movie executive, now stands charged with first-degree murder and the special circumstance of committing a prior murder. The charges for Alexander's death were filed Sept. 2.

Lydon's criminal history dates back at least 17 years. In the mid-1990s, Lydon accrued multiple convictions for theft, burglary and robbery on the East Coast.

As a fugitive from Boston, Lydon and another man traveled to Los Angeles where in 2000 they met film executive Jeffrey Harstedt, credited with having worked on the Tom Cruise film "Risky Business."

The fugitives hogtied, robbed and stabbed Harstedt, who survived the attack in his home.

Lydon and his accomplice were later arrested in San Francisco and returned to Los Angeles, where a jury convicted them of attempted murder. Lydon received a sentence of 54 years to life in prison.

Lydon in 2004 was housed at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga with Phillip Kunkle, a 60-year-old convicted child molester.

Lydon admitted to strangling Kunkle to death and received another sentence of 15 years to life.

It is unclear if Lydon is housed with another inmate now, but a corrections spokesman said prisoners under investigation are often housed alone in administrative segregation.

San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Robert Himelblau has filed an order to have the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation transport Lydon back to San Joaquin County from California State Prison, Sacramento, for prosecution.

Himelblau said it appears that Lydon strangled Alexander but declined to give more details. Himelblau said he has yet to receive all of the autopsy reports.

Lydon's case is strikingly similar to another murder at Deuel.

In 2007, Rick Henry Kase murdered his cellmate, 28-year-old convicted child molester Randy James Rabelos. Tired of Rabelos' shouting, Kase suffocated him, saying, "Goodbye, Randy."

At Kase's sentencing last year, San Joaquin County Deputy Public Defender Keith Arthur said the crime never should have happened. A judge sentenced Kase to 90 years to life in prison.

"I cannot imagine what was going through the minds of the people at DVI when they housed a convicted child molester with my client," Arthur said at Kase's sentencing.

Lydon is scheduled for an Oct. 5 arraignment in the San Joaquin County Superior Court on the new charges. ..Source.. by Scott Smith, Record Staff Writer

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Inmate: Prison knew of my past

2-10-2011 California:

Man suspected in cellmate slayings says he was abused

An inmate charged with murdering his cellmate at Tracy's Deuel Vocational Institution last year blames prison officials for putting him in the situation that turned deadly.

John Lydon, 37, also claims his recent troubles stem from childhood abuse by notorious Roman Catholic priest John Geoghan, who molested him as a schoolboy in Boston. That personal trauma has created a deep aversion to pedophiles, which he says he carries with him today.

These statements come in a two-page letter Lydon sent in response to one from The Record seeking comment on circumstances of the cellmate's death.

Lydon also says he informed Deuel officials that, in 2004, he killed a child molester who was a cellmate at another California prison. Lydon told them he didn't mind being housed at Deuel with other races. "Just no child molesters."

Lydon then quotes a jailer's reply: "I'll do what I want. This is my prison." He accuses jailers of setting him up.

Deuel spokesman Lt. Gilbert Valenzuela declined to comment on Lydon's letter, citing the ongoing criminal case.

Officials accuse Lydon of strangling 49-year-old Jonathan Guy Alexander to death in June. Lydon was housed with the Siskiyou County man, who was serving time for a 1993 conviction, including child molestation.

In his letter, Lydon all but admits to the killing. The new charge and his previous cellmate's murder now make Lydon eligible for a death sentence.

"I don't deserve the death penalty," Lydon writes. "Child molesters do."

Despite his letter, Lydon has pleaded not guilty to killing his cellmate.

He awaits a May preliminary hearing before San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Terrence Van Oss, who will decide if Lydon should face a jury trial. After that prosecutors will decide the penalty they seek - death or life in prison.

Lydon's letter engenders no sympathy from San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Robert Himelblau.

Himelblau said the letter demonstrates Lydon's self-absorption, a trait that is all too common for criminals who blame everyone else.

"He's a victim in every single scenario," said Himelblau, citing Lydon's attempt to hold the priest in Boston and the jailers at Deuel responsible for his actions.

Lydon has a long criminal history from Massachusetts to California.

He's been convicted throughout his adult life of theft, burglary and robbery. In 2000, he and another man hogtied, robbed and stabbed a Hollywood movie executive, who survived the attack.

Lydon explained in his letter that the executive had asked him and his accomplice to find young boys to make gay porn.

"I'm guilty. I stabbed him," Lydon writes. "But he was no saint."

There's no doubt that Lydon's criminal bent stems from being molested, said Lydon's sister, Mary Gallipeau, who was reached at home in Massachusetts. They were students together at St. Brendan, a Catholic school in Dorchester.

Lydon's claim of child abuse by the priest could not be independently verified. His sister and an uncle, Kevin Mulligan, both said they believed it were true and that it left an indelible mark on his life.

Gallipeau said that as a child she was jealous the priest took her 9-year-old brother to the carnival and not her. She didn't learn until years later that the priest molested her brother at least twice, she said.

The priest, Geoghan, was among the first American clerics discovered to have molested children, and the church paid his victims millions. They were reportedly each paid $80,000 to $300,000.

Geoghan, who was sent to prison for molesting a boy, died at age 68 in 2002 when another inmate strangled him.

Gallipeau said her brother, who also goes by John Mulligan, received a settlement from the Archdiocese of Boston, but not until after he was sent to prison.

In prison, she said her brother hasn't been able to take advantage of counseling, which also is part of his settlement. The abuse causes her brother to harbor enmity for the church and for homosexuals, she said.

"It's been tough on him," Gallipeau said. "His way of thinking is off. He never got the help." ..Source.. Scott Smith

S.J. inmate charged in cellmate's killing

This article is to document the death of "Jonathan Guy Alexander." However the article also mentions the death of Phillip Kunkle, which is documented HERE (A dup posting of this article)

9-17-2010 California:

STOCKTON - A prisoner at Tracy's Deuel Vocational Institution found dead in June was killed by his cellmate, according to a criminal complaint filed by San Joaquin County prosecutors.

John Joseph Lydon, 37, was convicted previously of murdering a cellmate at another California state prison, so this new charge carries a special circumstance, making him eligible for a death sentence.

If prosecutors prove their case against Lydon, this will make the second time in three years that a prisoner at Deuel has murdered a fellow inmate in the same cell.

Lt. Gilbert Valenzuela, a Deuel spokesman, said Lydon and his alleged victim, 49-year-old Jonathan Guy Alexander, were housed together in the sensitive-needs unit designed to protect vulnerable inmates.

While prosecutors say Alexander had been convicted twice of sex crimes, including child molestation in 1993 from Siskiyou County, Valenzuela did not know why Lydon was considered a special-needs inmate.

Deuel officials take Alexander's death seriously, Valenzuela said.

"Anytime we have a murder occur ... of course it's a concern," he said. "We're trying to ensure that all procedures are followed to ensure that doesn't ever happen again."

Lydon, a career criminal once convicted of trying to kill a Hollywood movie executive, now stands charged with first-degree murder and the special circumstance of committing a prior murder. The charges for Alexander's death were filed Sept. 2.

Lydon's criminal history dates back at least 17 years. In the mid-1990s, Lydon accrued multiple convictions for theft, burglary and robbery on the East Coast.

As a fugitive from Boston, Lydon and another man traveled to Los Angeles where in 2000 they met film executive Jeffrey Harstedt, credited with having worked on the Tom Cruise film "Risky Business."

The fugitives hogtied, robbed and stabbed Harstedt, who survived the attack in his home.

Lydon and his accomplice were later arrested in San Francisco and returned to Los Angeles, where a jury convicted them of attempted murder. Lydon received a sentence of 54 years to life in prison.

Lydon in 2004 was housed at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga with Phillip Kunkle, a 60-year-old convicted child molester.

Lydon admitted to strangling Kunkle to death and received another sentence of 15 years to life.

It is unclear if Lydon is housed with another inmate now, but a corrections spokesman said prisoners under investigation are often housed alone in administrative segregation.

San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Robert Himelblau has filed an order to have the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation transport Lydon back to San Joaquin County from California State Prison, Sacramento, for prosecution.

Himelblau said it appears that Lydon strangled Alexander but declined to give more details. Himelblau said he has yet to receive all of the autopsy reports.

Lydon's case is strikingly similar to another murder at Deuel.

In 2007, Rick Henry Kase murdered his cellmate, 28-year-old convicted child molester Randy James Rabelos. Tired of Rabelos' shouting, Kase suffocated him, saying, "Goodbye, Randy."

At Kase's sentencing last year, San Joaquin County Deputy Public Defender Keith Arthur said the crime never should have happened. A judge sentenced Kase to 90 years to life in prison.

"I cannot imagine what was going through the minds of the people at DVI when they housed a convicted child molester with my client," Arthur said at Kase's sentencing.

Lydon is scheduled for an Oct. 5 arraignment in the San Joaquin County Superior Court on the new charges. ..Source.. by Scott Smith, Record Staff Writer

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Inmate: Prison knew of my past

2-10-2011 California:

Man suspected in cellmate slayings says he was abused

An inmate charged with murdering his cellmate at Tracy's Deuel Vocational Institution last year blames prison officials for putting him in the situation that turned deadly.

John Lydon, 37, also claims his recent troubles stem from childhood abuse by notorious Roman Catholic priest John Geoghan, who molested him as a schoolboy in Boston. That personal trauma has created a deep aversion to pedophiles, which he says he carries with him today.

These statements come in a two-page letter Lydon sent in response to one from The Record seeking comment on circumstances of the cellmate's death.

Lydon also says he informed Deuel officials that, in 2004, he killed a child molester who was a cellmate at another California prison. Lydon told them he didn't mind being housed at Deuel with other races. "Just no child molesters."

Lydon then quotes a jailer's reply: "I'll do what I want. This is my prison." He accuses jailers of setting him up.

Deuel spokesman Lt. Gilbert Valenzuela declined to comment on Lydon's letter, citing the ongoing criminal case.

Officials accuse Lydon of strangling 49-year-old Jonathan Guy Alexander to death in June. Lydon was housed with the Siskiyou County man, who was serving time for a 1993 conviction, including child molestation.

In his letter, Lydon all but admits to the killing. The new charge and his previous cellmate's murder now make Lydon eligible for a death sentence.

"I don't deserve the death penalty," Lydon writes. "Child molesters do."

Despite his letter, Lydon has pleaded not guilty to killing his cellmate.

He awaits a May preliminary hearing before San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Terrence Van Oss, who will decide if Lydon should face a jury trial. After that prosecutors will decide the penalty they seek - death or life in prison.

Lydon's letter engenders no sympathy from San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Robert Himelblau.

Himelblau said the letter demonstrates Lydon's self-absorption, a trait that is all too common for criminals who blame everyone else.

"He's a victim in every single scenario," said Himelblau, citing Lydon's attempt to hold the priest in Boston and the jailers at Deuel responsible for his actions.

Lydon has a long criminal history from Massachusetts to California.

He's been convicted throughout his adult life of theft, burglary and robbery. In 2000, he and another man hogtied, robbed and stabbed a Hollywood movie executive, who survived the attack.

Lydon explained in his letter that the executive had asked him and his accomplice to find young boys to make gay porn.

"I'm guilty. I stabbed him," Lydon writes. "But he was no saint."

There's no doubt that Lydon's criminal bent stems from being molested, said Lydon's sister, Mary Gallipeau, who was reached at home in Massachusetts. They were students together at St. Brendan, a Catholic school in Dorchester.

Lydon's claim of child abuse by the priest could not be independently verified. His sister and an uncle, Kevin Mulligan, both said they believed it were true and that it left an indelible mark on his life.

Gallipeau said that as a child she was jealous the priest took her 9-year-old brother to the carnival and not her. She didn't learn until years later that the priest molested her brother at least twice, she said.

The priest, Geoghan, was among the first American clerics discovered to have molested children, and the church paid his victims millions. They were reportedly each paid $80,000 to $300,000.

Geoghan, who was sent to prison for molesting a boy, died at age 68 in 2002 when another inmate strangled him.

Gallipeau said her brother, who also goes by John Mulligan, received a settlement from the Archdiocese of Boston, but not until after he was sent to prison.

In prison, she said her brother hasn't been able to take advantage of counseling, which also is part of his settlement. The abuse causes her brother to harbor enmity for the church and for homosexuals, she said.

"It's been tough on him," Gallipeau said. "His way of thinking is off. He never got the help." ..Source.. Scott Smith

Sebastian County Jail inmate killed by another

9-17-2010 Arkansas:

FORT SMITH — A Sebastian County sheriff’s deputy says a county jail inmate suspected of killing another inmate claims God told him to kill.

Chief Deputy Tommy Young says 25-year-old Ashley Eugene Kaufman is suspected of strangling 64-year-old Gary Wolf Thursday morning in Kaufman’s cell.

It was not known whether Kaufman had an attorney.

Young says Kaufman told deputies he called Wolf into his cell after breakfast and strangled him with his hands then dragged his body into Wolf’s cell.

A deputy delivering medications found Wolf dead in his bunk.

Wolf was being held on charges of molesting two children. Kaufman was being held for kidnapping and battery. ..Source.. by Arkansas Online

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sebastian County Inmate Strangled In Cell

9-17-2010 Arkansas:

A Sebastian County inmate manually strangled another inmate Thursday morning after luring him into his jail cell, authorities said.

Ashley Eugene Kaufman, 25, was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder for allegedly killing Gary Van Wolf, 64, of Fort Smith.

Kaufman told investigators that "God told him to do this," after admitting he killed Wolf.

During the criminal investigation, authorities learned that Kaufman called Wolf into his cell at about 9:30 a.m. and then he "strangled him with his bare hands," said Chief Deputy Tom Young of the Sebastian County Sheriff's Office.

Kaufman then dragged Wolf out of his cell and into Wolf's cell where he placed him on the bed, put a plastic bag around his head and tied a string around it, and then placed a sheet over him, Young said.

Wolf was found by a detention deputy within 20 minutes of his death, authorities said. A deputy passing out medication while making his rounds through a pod was approached by an inmate who told him to check on Wolf.

When the deputy went into Wolf's cell, he found him unresponsive and emergency medical personnel were called to the scene, Young said.

Kaufman told authorities he placed the bag around Wolf so he would suffocate in case he wasn't dead.

Wolf and Kaufman were housed in a protective custody pod away from other inmates. Inmates with sex offense-related charges are usually housed in this pod, Young said. Kaufman was transferred to this pod on Monday after he punched detention deputy Aaron Mariott in the jaw and neck, according to a jail incident report.

Kaufman has been in jail since Aug. 20 after he was arrested for severely battering another man, whom he allegedly bound with tape, kidnapped and dumped in a field, according to a police report.

Fort Smith police were notified that a man, later identified as Scott McLachlan, was found in a field in Dora on Aug. 19. Duct tape had been wrapped around McLachlan's feet and hands and placed over his mouth, according to the report. McLachlan told police that Kaufman stole his pickup and kidnapped him.

Kaufman admitted to officers he had beaten McLachlan and said he wished he had killed him, according to the report.

Other charges Kaufman faces include first-degree domestic battery, kidnapping without releasing the victim, a parole violation, petition to revoke a suspended sentence and second-degree battery for assaulting the deputy, according police and jail reports.

Wolf had been in jail since Sept. 9, charged with two counts of second-degree sexual assault, Young said.

Authorities accused Wolf of putting his hand in the underwear of two minor boys and feeling their genitals, according to a police report. The boys told authorities Wolf told them he lost a tooth and was searching for it in their underwear, according to the report.

An internal investigation into whether policies and procedures were followed at the jail will begin today, Young said. ..Source.. by Amy Sherrill

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Suspected Child Molester Strangled in Jail When Guards Left Inmates Alone

FORT SMITH, Ark. (AP) - A report by the Sebastian County Sheriff's Office says jailers left inmates unguarded for an hour during the time an inmate accused of sex crimes with children was strangled.

The Times Record in Fort Smith reports 64-year-old Gary Van Wolf was likely lured from his cell, strangled, then dragged back to his cell. The inmate was found dead Sept. 16.

The sheriff's office has named 25-year-old inmate Ashley Eugene Kaufman as the suspect in the death.

Wolf was charged with two counts of sexual assault for allegedly fondling two boys, something Kaufman learned when he and Wolf made video court appearances.

Three jail employees were reprimanded, but the report also cites problems of overcrowding and too few jail staff members. ..Source.. by MyEyeWitnessNews.com

Inmate charged with murdering fellow inmate

1-26-2010 Georgia:

VALDOSTA, GA (WALB) –Authorities have now charged a Valdosta State Prison inmate with murdering a fellow inmate.

Anthony Rogers is accused of killing John W Arnett last Wednesday night (1-20-2010) at the Prison.

Rogers is already serving a life sentence for a 1997 Murder in Savannah.

Arnett was serving time for Child Molestation in Appling and Bartow Counties.

Arnett was found Thursday morning and later pronounced dead at South Georgia Medical Center.

The Corrections Department did not release details on how Arnett was killed. ..Source.. by WALB News

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Convicted child molester strangled in prison

1-26-2010 Georgia:

A 27-year-old Valdosta State Prison inmate was strangled to death, according to the Lowndes County coroner.

John Arnett, who was convicted of child molestation in both Bartow and Appling counties, was found in his cell last Thursday. The cause of death was manual strangulation, according to Coroner Bill Watson.

Arnett's sentence began last July, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.

An inmate already serving time for a previous murder conviction has been accused in Arnett's death. Anthony Rogers has been in jail since October 1998 following his conviction for murder in the Savannah area.

Arnett is at least the third state inmate to die in recent weeks.

On Jan. 1, guards at the state prison in Jackson found 35-year-old Leeland Mark Braley hanging in his cell. Prison officials say Braley, sentenced to death in 1999 for the murder of a Zebulon insurance agent, apparently took his own life.

Timothy Pruitt's death more than three weeks earlier was ruled an "alleged suicide," though his death remains under investigation. ..Source.. by Alexis Stevens, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

FL- Sheriff: Prisoner Used Shoestring To Strangle Cellmate

10-14-2009 Florida:

Detectives Say Victim's Cellmate Called Him 'Pervert'

INDIANTOWN, Fla. -- A 29-year-old prisoner at the Martin Correctional Institution used a shoestring to strangle his cellmate because he was "a pervert," according to an arrest affidavit.

Martin County sheriff's detectives said Ricky Silva killed Terry Bell, 45, in their cell early Wednesday morning.

Bell's body was discovered at about 2:40 a.m. while a corrections officer was conducting his hourly cell checks. A shoestring was tied tightly around his neck.

According to the affidavit, another prisoner told detectives Silva had stated to him in the last few days that he was "going to kill (Bell) with a noose made from a shoestring." Silva told the prisoner he was upset because Bell was "a pervert."

Prison records show that Bell was serving a life sentence for sexual battery on a victim under the age of 12.

A prison nurse who checked on both cellmates told detectives that Silva's right hand was swollen from the "rope tied around his hand."

Silva was taken to the Martin County Jail and charged with first-degree murder. ..Source.. by WPBF.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Inmate: Cellmate 'needed to be killed'

1-29-2010 Florida:

STUART, FL — Prison inmate Ricky Silva thinks the death penalty is too severe a punishment for strangling his cellmate with a shoestring. In fact, he’s proud of what he did.

And he wants you to be proud of him, too.

“It’s not like I killed an innocent citizen or somebody who was undeserving,” said Silva, 29, of Terry Bell’s Oct. 14 homicide at the Martin Correctional Institution, where both men were serving life prison terms.

“Under my belief system, there’s still some people in the world that need killing and he was one of them,” he said. “I don’t believe I should pay for killing somebody that needed to be killed.”

Bell, 45, was convicted for raping a young Marion County girl after entering her bedroom through a window while her parents slept down the hall, said to Jerry Burford, a former state prosecutor who tried the 1999 crime. Bell left behind a palm print on a windowsill, he said, and Bell’s DNA was found on the victim.

Silva told several investigators he caught Bell committing an inappropriate act while holding a photo of Silva’s young niece. Silva said that prompted the attack.

But a fellow inmate has said Silva’s attack on Bell was racially motivated, and he’s threatened to kill again, said Assistant State Attorney Nita Denton, who said putting him on death row might be the only way to prevent Silva from harming anyone.

Silva, a former Fort Lauderdale laborer and landscaper serving life in prison, was no stranger to violence after twice brandishing a knife during a 2007 crime spree in Broward County. He has been convicted of armed-robbery, armed-carjacking kidnapping and other crimes.

During an interview at the Martin County jail, Silva recited details of Bell’s death.

“I stepped off the bed, I hit him, when he hit the door he fell to the ground,” he recalled, his voice flat. “I continued to hit him a couple of more times and then I wrapped a noose around his neck and I strangled him.”

A guard found Bell on a bottom bunk lying on his stomach with a black shoestring wrapped around his neck — the other end attached to a metal bed frame. , He was reported dead at 2:40 a.m.

“If you had kids, you would understand,” Silva later told a prison nurse treating wounds to his right hand. “You should thank me for it.”

Despite confessing to the grisly crime, Silva has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. He said it’s wrong for state prosecutors to seek the death penalty against him.

“I don’t believe I should be punished,” he insisted. “I believe people should be celebrating and clapping their hands.”

Denton couldn’t disagree more.

“He has no respect for human life,” she said.

She said based on a stack of confession letters he’s written to her office, she alerted jail authorities that he’d threatened to kill again.

“He was asking for the death penalty,” Denton said, “and that he would continue to kill not only inmates, but the people he came around if he in fact did not get the death penalty.”

Silva in his letters, she said, railed on the prison system and claimed he killed Bell as a message to prison officials.

“I’m tired of the system,” Silva wrote. “They feed us like little kids, they won’t pay us for work ... there is no reason for me not to kill again.”

He’d keep killing, he wrote, until correction officials “give back everything they took from us: packages, weights, hobby crafts, paying jobs and three decent meals a day, or until I am dead.”

“I suggest (Bell) be taken as a warning,” Silva threatened, “because next time it will not be a black inmate who is killed.”

Silva, too, was accused by another inmate of killing Bell, an African-American, because of ties to a white supremacist group.

“He stated he’s made it his mission — from now on — to murder any blacks he gets access to inside the prison system,” George Warner wrote to prosecutors. “That was his chief motive for strangling his black roommate.”

But in a letter Silva wrote to Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers, the New York native presented himself as a struggling drug addict who was abused by an alcoholic mother until at age 3, he and his sister were separated and bounced from one foster family to another. By age 16, he was alone and often in trouble.

“I had no family,” he wrote, “I started using drugs and by 19 I was an addict.”

By age 27, he was sentenced to life in prison for a series of crimes including breaking into a Fort Lauderdale man’s apartment, forcing him at knifepoint to drive to an ATM to withdraw cash before returning $20 to the victim and stealing his SUV. He was arrested shortly after committing an armed carjacking at a 7-Eleven.

Then, while in prison and suicidal, Silva reconnected with his long-lost sister.

“She sent me a picture of my niece and two nephews,” Silva said. “Here is the family I craved, but never had.”

He kept the photo at the edge of his bed. On Oct. 14, he woke up, saw Bell holding it and went into a rage.

“Here was someone violating the only people I have in my life,” Silva said. “I am not trying to justify murder but if people could see it through my eyes they might understand and hopefully agree I don’t deserve the death penalty.”

Meanwhile, Denton’s not buying it.

“If he had such a hatred of Bell because of the crime he committed, he could have asked to be moved,” she said. “He could have asked to be transferred to another prison.” ..Source.. by Melissa E. Holsman Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers

Utah inmate charged in killing of cellmate

12-6-2009 Utah:

Prosecutors have filed an aggravated murder charge against a Utah State Prison inmate accused of killing his cellmate.

The first-degree felony charge against Athian Kuot Mawien could lead to a possible death sentence.

Mawien, 29, is accused of strangling Mark Helms, 47, inside the cell they shared at the prison's Draper site.

The Nov. 22 slaying sprang from a disagreement and teasing between the men that escalated into a fistfight, said Salt Lake County Sheriff's Lt. Don Hutson.

After Helm was punched several times in the head, he was strangled with a "ligature made from a laundry bag," according to jail records.

Corrections officers were made aware of the fight after other inmates notified them of a disturbance and an unresponsive inmate. Helms was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after the altercation.

Both inmates were housed in a section of the prison typically reserved for sex offenders. They had been cellmates since Nov. 6, according to the prison.

Mawien was convicted in 2004 of two amended charges of attempted aggravated sex assault, a first-degree felony; and forcible sex abuse, a second-degree felony. He was sentenced to serve seven years to life in prison.

Helms pleaded guilty in 1998 to child sex abuse and dealing in harmful materials to a minor. He received a suspended prison term and was sentenced to one year in the Davis County Jail. The following year, however, he was charged with 13 additional crimes relating to child sex abuse. He was later sentenced to six years to life in prison.

Mawien made his initial court appearance on the aggravated murder charge Thursday. Once he is arraigned, prosecutors have 60 days to decide whether they will seek the death penalty. ..Source.. by Geoff Liesik, Deseret News

CA- Mule Creek inmate's death under investigation

9-3-2009 California:

Officials are investigating the strangulation death of a 73-year-old inmate at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione.

David Noles was found dead at 4:05 p.m. Sunday in a cell he shared with another inmate. Noles was serving a 34-year sentence on a 1993 conviction from Sonoma County for rape with a foreign object and sexual battery.

As required by prison rules, Noles' cellmate was moved to a high security housing unit pending the death investigation. Prison officials and Amador County District Attorney's Office are investigating Noles' death. Officials did not immediately release the cellmate's name.

The death comes less than one month after another inmate at the prison, 62-year-old John Linley Frazier, apparently committed suicide by hanging himself. ..Source.. by The Record

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CA- Officials say former chiropractor killed in prison

9-4-2009 California:

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—State prison officials say a former Sonoma County chiropractor serving time on a rape charge has been killed in prison.

Officials with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation say David Noles was found dead in his cell at Mule Creek State Prison Sunday.

An autopsy performed Wednesday by the Sacramento County Coroner's Office determined that the 73-year-old Noles had been strangled to death.

Noles was serving a 35-year sentence in the prison outside of Sacramento after being convicted in 1993 of rape and sexual battery.

When he was sentenced, a Sonoma County judge gave Noles the maximum sentence because he showed no remorse.

The 17-year-old female victim was both an employee and a patient of the former chiropractor. ..Source.. by MercuryNews.com

CO- Was inmate death suicide or murder?

7-31-2009 Colorado:

In 2005, after being charged with sexual assault on a child and awaiting trial at the Jefferson County Detention Facility, Anthony Sims was so worried about his safety in prison that he asked, and was granted, to be housed in protective custody.

What Sims did not know, according to a lawsuit filed this week in the United States District Court of Colorado, was that nearby, just beyond a shared shower with faulty locks, a violent white supremacist Shawn Shields was being held. Shields had been transferred from the “Supermax” prison and was awaiting charges for assault on a cellmate.

Kathie Sims, Anthony’s mother, claims in the civil suit that because of the access provided by the broken shower locks, Shields was able to enter Sims’ cell and strangle him with a tube sock.

Sims’ death had been ruled a suicide by the Jefferson County Coroner and indeed Kathie was told there was nothing to suggest his death was a homicide. Yet as the Complaint points out, Sims had been badly beaten and his head was in a pool of blood.

Nearly 3 years after her son’s death, Kathie was contacted by an FBI agent whose “ investigation had determined that Anthony had not committed suicide, but had been murdered by a fellow inmate.”

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the Estate of Anthony Sims, is directed against the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners and sheriffs for failing to protect Sims while he was in their protective custody. The attorney for the plaintiff, David Lane, has also been in the news lately as the defense attorney for controversial professor Ward Churchill. ..Source.. by Glorianne Scott

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jeffco DA probing inmate's '05 death

7-31-2009 Colorado:

The Jefferson County district attorney is investigating the death four years ago of a child-sexual-assault suspect in the county jail — a death initially ruled a suicide.

The investigation was prompted by a statement made by a prison inmate, who told the FBI that he killed Anthony Sims after manipulating a shared door between their cells that was supposed to be locked.

On Nov. 1, 2005, 20-year-old Sims was found with a tube sock tied around his neck, his body slumped face down over his cell bed with his legs on the floor.

The right side of his face was bruised and swollen.

After an investigation by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, the county coroner ruled Sims' death a suicide.

Then, in 2008, inmate Shawn Shields, 36, who is serving time in state prison on a variety of felony offenses until October 2028, told an FBI agent that he had killed Sims, after figuring out how to open a locked door between their cells.

Shields has yet to serve a pending 10-year federal sentence for beating another inmate on May 23, 2005, while in a holding cell at the U.S. District Court in Denver. The victim was beaten because he was a witness testifying against another inmate in a federal court case, records show.

An FBI agent notified Sims' mother, Kathie, of Shields' statement. On Wednesday, she filed suit against the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners, Sheriff Ted Mink and an unnamed deputy.

The lawsuit says Jefferson County failed to protect Sims from Shields, an inmate with a record of violence on other prisoners, described as a high-level member of a white supremacist prison gang.

Jefferson County sheriff's spokeswoman Jacki Kelley and County Attorney Writer Mott said Thursday that Shields' claims were investigated.

"We don't believe the story and don't believe the inmate was killed at the hands of another inmate at our facility," Kelley said. "The doors were tested, and we could not replicate or duplicate what this inmate said occurred."

Shields is not charged with homicide. Sims' death remains classified as a suicide in Jefferson County.

But while the Sheriff's Office has discounted Shields' claims, there is an open investigation into Sims' death by the district attorney.

Pam Russell, spokeswoman for the district attorney, acknowledged the probe but said she could not elaborate.

David Lane, attorney for Kathie Sims, said more investigation is clearly needed.

"He beat himself to a pulp before he tied a sock around his neck and strangled himself to death? It's ridiculous," Lane said.

The lawsuit says Shields and other inmates knew how to manipulate the doors in the shared shower between the administrative segregation unit, where Shields was housed, and the protective-custody unit, where Sims was held. ..Source.. by Felisa Cardona

FL- Raymond Wigley Murdered in Prison

7-18-2009 Florida:

The account of Raymond Wigley's murder in prison is put together from multiple sources.

Starting with the June 17, 2009 news article below "Date Set Again For Marek Execution" we find these two comments:

"In 1983, Marek and Wigley were convicted of kidnapping, raping and strangling Adella Marie Simmons after her car broke down on Florida's Turnpike. Marek and Wigley stopped and persuaded Simmons to ride with them to a service station. They instead took her to a beach about 60 miles away where she was strangled with a bandana after being sexually assaulted. Her body was found in a lifeguard shack on Dania Beach."

"Wigley was sentenced to life in prison and Marek received the death penalty. Marek has been on death row for 25 years. Wigley, meantime, died in prison in 2000. Ironically, he was strangled by a fellow inmate."

So we have, Raymond Wigley -a convicted rapist & murderer- was himself murdered by a fellow inmate in 2000.

Searching the Internet we then find the appellate court case of JOHN RICHARD MAREK, Appellant, -vs.- STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellee. (No. SC09-765 5-8-2009)

On page 2 is this footnote:

1. Marek’s codefendant, Raymond Wigley, was tried separately and sentenced to life in prison for his role in the kidnapping and murder of Simmons. Wigley was later murdered in prison by John Blackwelder. See Blackwelder v. State, 851 So. 2d 650 (Fla. 2003) (affirming Blackwelder’s conviction for first-degree murder and his sentence of death).

From pp10-11:
The prosecutor related the factual basis for the plea, and the defense agreed that the State could establish a prima facie case:

MR. DEKLE: Basically, the state stands ready to prove that the defendant, in his cell at Columbia Correctional Institution here in Columbia County, tied inmate Raymond Wigley in a four-point restraints into -- on the bottom bunk that was in that cell, that he then took a ligature and tied it around the neck of Mr. Wigley and compressed that ligature to the point that he killed Mr. Wigley by strangulation.

At that point he then left the cell, leaving the body in the cell, went and reported his conduct to a correctional officer. The FDLE and the Office of the Inspector General were summoned to the scene. Since that time Mr. Blackwelder has given a full and complete taped statement in which he admitted to premeditating the murder of Mr. Wigley and describing how he committed that murder. That complete taped statement was made after a full and complete advisal of his Miranda rights. A transcript of that statement is in the court file.

Since that time Mr. Blackwelder has written a number of letters which contain what the State contends to be admissions to the -- to the -- to the homicide.

And that’s basically the evidence that the state stands ready to prove to prove the premeditated homicide. When we get to the penalty phase, we’ll be offering a tremendous amount of additional evidence as it relates to the circumstances of the homicide. But that’s enough to prove the premeditated murder.

This documents the death of Raymond Wigley.

eAdvocate

=============================================

Date Set Again For Marek Execution

7-17-2009 Florida:

Florida Can Execute John Marek After State Supreme Court Ruling

Justices Stayed Execution In May In Order To Hear New Evidence

Marek Was Convicted Of Kidnapping, Raping & Strangling A Woman In 1993.

FORT LAUDERDALE (CBS4) --A date has been set, for the second time, for convicted killer Richard Marek's execution for the murder of a South Florida woman two decades ago.

Marek is to be executed by lethal injection on Friday, August 21.

Marek was supposed to be executed May 13 for the 1983 kidnapping, rape and murder of Adella Marie Simmons in Broward County.

The Supreme Court put the execution on hold May 11, allowing Marek time to argue his accomplice, Raymond Wigley, was the actual killer. A Broward Circuit Court was told to review the appeal, which it denied.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court agreed with the decision and lifted the stay.

In 1983, Marek and Wigley were convicted of kidnapping, raping and strangling Adella Marie Simmons after her car broke down on Florida's Turnpike. Marek and Wigley stopped and persuaded Simmons to ride with them to a service station. They instead took her to a beach about 60 miles away where she was strangled with a bandana after being sexually assaulted. Her body was found in a lifeguard shack on Dania Beach.

Three prison inmates testified in court in June that Wigley confessed to being the actual killer. All three inmates were previous cellmates of Wigley's.

When they were caught by police, Wigley confessed, but said it was Marek who strangled Simmons.

Wigley was sentenced to life in prison and Marek received the death penalty. Marek has been on death row for 25 years. Wigley, meantime, died in prison in 2000. Ironically, he was strangled by a fellow inmate. ..Source.. by



Article: Florida inmate who wanted state to kill him is executed

5-27-2004 Florida:

A man who said he killed a fellow prison inmate so the state of Florida would give him the death penalty has been executed.

John Blackwelder, 49, received an injection of chemicals at Florida State Prison on Wednesday, a spokesman for Gov. Jeb Bush said.

Blackwelder was convicted in the May 2000 strangling of Raymond Wigley, 39, who was serving a life term for murder.

At the time, Blackwelder faced life without parole for a series of sex convictions. He said he killed Wigley and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder because he wanted to die but couldn't bring himself to … ..Source.. by AP

OH- Possible Inmate Homicide Investigated at Belmont Correctional Institute

9-19-2008 Ohio:

Victim was serving for gross sexual imposition.

ST.CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio -- An inmate was killed sometime on Thursday at the Belmont Correctional Institute, according to Lt. Tony Bradshaw of the Ohio State Highway Patrol in Columbus.

It is being investigated as a homicide, Bradshaw said. He will not say what happened.

The victim has been identified as Harry Amick, 47, who was sentenced out of Cuyahoga County.

A suspect will only be identified if charges are filed.

Amick had only arrived at the prison this past April, records showed. He was serving a four year sentence for gross sexual imposition. ..News Source.. by Jerry Echemann

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BCI Inmate’s Death Probed

9-20-2008 Ohio:

ST. CLAIRSVILLE - Ohio State Highway Patrol and prison officials are declining to disclose how a Belmont Correctional Institution inmate died this week at the St. Clairsville facility.

According to officials from BCI, the inmate, Harry Amick, 47, of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, died following an incident that occurred at the prison at about 4 p.m. Thursday. Prison officials said Amick was serving a four-year sentence in connection with a conviction on a charge of gross sexual imposition.

Amick was first incarcerated in the Lorain Correctional Institution and began serving his sentence there in April of this year, officials said.

"We're looking into the incident and the circumstances surrounding the inmate's death," said Lt. Tony Bradshaw from the Ohio State Highway Patrol in Columbus.

Spokesmen for the state patrol and the prison did not release specific details about the incident, noting the case remains under investigation.

"Once all the evidence is gathered and the coroner's office rules on the cause of death, we will present what we have to the prosecutor's office," said Bradshaw, indicating charges in the matter could be pending. ..News Source.. by ERIC AYRES

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Investigation Continues Into Inmate Death

9-23-2008 Ohio:

An inmate killed at Belmont Correctional Institute was serving a four-year sentence on a gross sexual imposition charge out of Cuyahoga County.

The investigation continues into exactly what led up to the death of 47-year-old Harry Amick.

A news release from the Ohio State Highway Patrol in Columbus confirms Amick died after another inmate choked him to death last week.

A State Patrol representative said they’re still waiting on the Belmont County coroner to determine a final cause of death. ..NewsSource.. by WTOV.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

No indictment handed down in BeCI death

12-5-2008:

A Belmont County grand jury this week did not hand down an indictment in connection with the September death of an inmate at the Belmont Correctional Institution in St. Clairsville.

According to Belmont County Prosecutor Chris Berhalter, evidence from the case was presented to a grand jury Wednesday, and the panel returned a "not true" bill.

The case stems from an incident that occurred at BeCI on Sept. 18. An inmate, Harry Amick, 47, of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, died as a result of the incident.

Investigators from the Ohio State Highway Patrol - which has jurisdiction over the state correctional facility in such matters - were called to look into the matter. The Belmont County Coroner's Office was also called to investigate.

Officials indicated the investigation showed that another inmate involved in a physical confrontation with Amick had claimed he was defending himself at the time the incident occurred. Amick was reportedly choked during the confrontation.

"All of the evidence gathered from a thorough investigation conducted by the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the prison itself was presented to the grand jury," said Berhalter. "This evidence did include a claim of self defense. After hearing all of this evidence, the grand jury did not return an indictment."

No charges are expected to be filed against the inmate involved in the dispute with Amick.

Prison officials said Amick was serving a four-year sentence in connection with a conviction on a charge of gross sexual imposition. Amick was first incarcerated in the Lorain Correctional Institution and began serving his sentence there in April of this year, officials said. ..Source.. by ERIC AYRES