Child Rape Suspect Murdered in Ohio Prison

3-19-2013 Ohio:

The Ohio State Highway Patrol is investigating the death of an inmate at the high-security Toledo Correctional Center as a homicide.

Lt. Ann Ralston of the Ohio State Highway Patrol says the inmate whose death is being investigated is Arturo B. Lopez. He was 43 and was in prison on a rape conviction out of Ottawa County, OH. His death is being investigated as a homicide, and Lt. Ralston described it as an inmate-on-inmate attack.

Lopez, 43, was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2007, after being convicted of raping his wife’s 5-year-old granddaughter in July of 2005. The crime happened at a family picnic on the 3rd of July, according to online records of the 6th Ohio Court of Appeals in Toledo which reviewed his case.

The appeals court upheld his conviction but asked the trial court, Ottawa County Common Pleas Court, to re-sentence Lopez to clear up questions about how his guilty plea was handled.

Lopez was also subject to automatic deportation to Mexico when the sentence ends in 2014. He was a Mexican national who married a US citizen.

Prison spokeswoman Darlene Mitchell said Lopez was found in his cell Sunday at about 9:55 p.m. He was taken to the hospital, where he was declared dead at approximately 10:40 p.m. The man shared a cell at the prison with another inmate, but Ralston would not say if that inmate is a suspect in his death.

The Highway Patrol was called immediately and the Investigative Unit in Findlay is checking out the death. Ralston says the Highway Patrol will complete its investigation and give the case to the Lucas County Prosecutors office. The Prosecutor will present the case to a Lucas County Grand Jury for any charges. ..Source.. by Cor-Spec-Ops

Records offer details about child porn suspect dead in New Market shooting

3-7-2013 Tennessee:

KNOXVILLE — The FBI investigation that resulted in the shooting death of an East Tennessee man early Wednesday started out as a child pornography investigation in Australia.

Federal warrants have identified Scott Evans, 40, New Market, Tenn., as the man killed Wednesday when FBI agents were attempting to serve warrants at his 2332 Stapleton Road home.

Evans was facing arrest as part of an investigation into possession and distribution of child pornography.

An FBI agent with the agency’s Knoxville division “was involved in a shooting” at the Stapleton Road address, according to a release from Special Agent Kelly Kindness.

Maine State Police say sex offender’s death in Molunkus related to I-95 suicide

3-12-2013 Maine:

MOLUNKUS TOWNSHIP, Maine — The death of a registered sex offender on Macwahoc Road is connected to a four-hour standoff on Interstate 95 that ended Monday with a man’s suicide, state police said Tuesday.

State police officers found the body of Lawrence J. Lewis, 68, in his home at 450 Macwahoc Road on Monday night while other officers were engaged in a standoff with 59-year-old Bruce King several miles away. The standoff ended shortly after 8 p.m. when King shot himself in the head with a rifle.

Investigators who gathered outside Lewis’ home on Tuesday declined to release details of the connection between the deaths of Lewis and King. It might be days before they have the whole story, state police Lt. Christopher Coleman said.

“We are not in a position to draw any conclusions yet. We are trying to establish how Mr. King knew Mr. Lewis,” Coleman said during a press conference at Lewis’ home.

“This is Day One of a very complex investigation,” Coleman added.

Lewis was convicted in 1996 of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old boy who lived with him and is a lifetime registrant on the Maine Sex Offender Registry, according to previous Bangor Daily News reports.

He was convicted in September 1996 of gross sexual assault and unlawful sexual contact with the child and sentenced to 14 years in prison with five years suspended and six years of probation after he was released.

King was a passenger in a rented truck that Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office deputies stopped on the highway near mile marker 225 at about 4 p.m. Monday, said Coleman, who leads the Major Crime Unit for northern Maine.