8-21-2013 Oregon:The man suspected of killing his cellmate at the Oregon State Penitentiary murdered a fellow inmate in a Minnesota prison in 1997.
Craig Dennis Bjork, 53, was identified as the inmate suspected of strangling 45-year-old Joseph Akins, who was found dead in his cell Saturday, according to Marion County Deputy District Attorney Paige Clarkson.
Bjork entered the Oregon Department of Corrections of Jan. 16, 2013 on an interstate compact from Minnesota where he was serving three consecutive life sentences for the 1982 murders of his 1- and 3-year-old boys, his girlfriend and another woman, according to a 1997 article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune
In 1997, Bjork beat fellow inmate Edwin Curry, 41, to death with a pipe in a basement kitchen area in the Minnesota Correctional Facility at Stillwater. He told guards he planned to kill several more inmates if he had time, the Star Tribune reported.
Bjork and Akins shared a cell together in the C-Block of the Oregon State Penitentiary. On Sunday, the Oregon State Medical Examiner determined Akins died of “inflicted trauma.”
Bjork was held in segregation as the investigation continued.
Once the investigation is complete, the DA’s office will determine the criminal charges against Bjork and prepare the case for the grand jury.
Akins was convicted of murder in Multnomah County in January 2008. According to the Oregonian, he was sentenced to more than 22 years in prison 14 years after raping and murdering a Milwaukie wife and mother of two. ..Source.. by Evan Sernoffsky
Man Who Killed 5 In MN Kills Again Behind Bars
An Oregon State Penitentiary inmate found dead in his cell last week was strangled and a cellmate with multiple murders on his record is the suspect, the state police said.
Joseph Akins, a 45-year-old convicted murderer, was found dead Saturday at the Salem prison. Cellmate Craig Bjork was immediately placed in a segregation unit at the prison, but he was not publicly named as the suspect until Wednesday.
State police say criminal charges against the 53-year-old Bjork will be determined by the Marion County District Attorney’s Office when the investigation is over and the case is ready for a grand jury.
Bjork, 53, has been in the Oregon prison since January, when he transferred from Minnesota on an interstate compact.
In Minnesota, Bjork was convicted in the murders of his two young sons in 1982, his girlfriend and a Minneapolis prostitute. According to court records, Bjork was harassed in prison during the 1980s for being a child killer and was transferred from Minnesota to a Montana prison. He was returned to Minnesota following an escape attempt.
According to court records, on Thanksgiving Day 1997, in a kitchen area, Bjork used a plumber’s pipe to murder fellow inmate Edwin Curry, a 41-year-old convicted sex offender who was due to be released the following year.
Curry’s relatives filed a lawsuit against Minnesota prison officials, contending that no reasonable official would allow a “known psychopath” who had threatened to commit mass murder to work alone with another inmate in an unsupervised area with access to weapons. The family lost the lawsuit.
“He confessed to first-degree murder, in a lot of states that’s the death penalty,” Harold Curry, the victim’s 81 year-old father, said in a phone interview Wednesday from Stewartville, Minn.
“Minnesota ain’t got the death penalty. And now that (expletive) has killed another person.”
Four of the 37 inmates on Oregon’s death row are there because their aggravated murder convictions involve the killing of an inmate, according to a recent Salem Statesman Journal article. That includes Gary Haugen, whose much-publicized request to die was blocked by Gov. John Kitzhaber and the Oregon Supreme Court. Kitzhaber has said no inmate will be put to death as long as he’s governor.
Akins was convicted in 2007 of murder in the death of Susan Rae Hosler, a woman who was kidnapped from a restaurant parking lot southeast of Portland in 1994.
A Department of Corrections official declined to say why Bjork was transferred to Oregon and why he was placed in a cell with another inmate. Anita Nelson, the agency’s public records and research manager, said she couldn’t talk about Bjork because of the criminal investigation and an administrative review. ..Source.. by CBS Minnesota
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