Md. inmate killed 4 days before rape conviction tossed

2-16-2017 Maryland:

HAGERSTOWN, Md. -- Roger Largent, 69, will never get a chance to clear his name in the rape of a disabled woman: He was found beaten to death in his prison cell four days before a court tossed his conviction.

Authorities suspect Largent’s cellmate in the slaying, but they have not cited a motive or filed charges in the Saturday attack.

Maryland State Police spokesman Greg Shipley said Monday that the state medical examiner’s office has ruled Largent’s death a homicide, CBS Baltimore reports. He died from blunt force trauma to the head.

On Wednesday, a Maryland appeals court threw out Largent’s conviction and said he should get a new trial because the jury verdict last year hinged largely on a prosecution witness’ improper testimony.

The assault happened in 2015 when Largent went to the mentally disabled woman’s house to give her and her blind husband a ride to a doctor’s appointment. The woman testified at trial that Largent walked up behind her, covered her mouth, pulled down her pants and raped her in the kitchen while her husband was upstairs.

Man convicted of molesting girl, 6, dies during appeal

9-22-2016 Georgia:

A life sentence became a death sentence for 64-year-old Robert “Buddy” Turner.

The Columbus man who maintained his innocence after he was sentenced to life for aggravated child molestation two years ago has died in state custody.

A sister testifying at his sentencing on Jan. 14, 2015, said she feared he would not survive an extended prison sentence. A brother-in-law told Judge William Rumer the case had turned the former construction worker into "an aging, frail, broken man.”

Defense attorneys said Turner’s health declined precipitously in prison, where he did not get the medical care he needed.

On Oct. 20, 2016, authorities brought Turner to Columbus for an Oct. 26 court hearing. As his health worsened, medical workers at the Muscogee County Jail had Turner taken to Columbus’ Midtown Medical Center, which later transferred him to a hospital in Atlanta.

Former MC professor killed in prison

1-23-17 West Virginia:

Eugene Robert Anderson, 66, a former Marietta College professor who received more than 100 years in prison for child pornography charges in Marietta and Parkersburg, was killed in prison Sunday.

According to the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, Anderson was killed Sunday evening after an apparent assault by one or more fellow inmates at the Mount Olive Correctional Complex.

Anderson was fatally injured around 6 p.m. in an outdoor recreation area. The facility was immediately placed on lockdown.

A makeshift weapon has been recovered. No one has been charged in the incident. The West Virginia State Police are investigating.

Anderson was serving sentences imposed in both Kanawha and Wood counties for multiple sexual offenses involving minors. His minimum discharge date in West Virginia was in 2148. ..Source.. by staff reports

Prisoner Tells the Simple Reason He Killed His Child Molester Cell Mate

10-16-2016 Michigan:

If you had any doubt that prisoners who are sentenced for crimes against children, especially crimes of a sexual nature, serve extra hard time while locked away in prison, let this story remind you that they almost always do, one way or another.

That was the case with convicted child molester Theodore Dyer, a 67-year-old man who was incarcerated in Michigan’s Saginaw Regional Correctional Facility for a “really bad case” of child molestation. His cellmate, Steven D. Sanidson, killed him in the middle of the night for it.

“The reason I killed him was because he was a child molester,” Sandison told a judge when asked why he murdered his cellmate.

Sandison, a 51-year-old man who was already serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for a murder he committed in 1991, gave a detailed account of the killing to his lawyer, James Gust.

“That night he was trying to justify why he did it, and I told him to keep quiet and that he’d have to leave in the morning, find a new cell. But he continued to talk about it, try to justify it,” Sandison said.

The murder weapon was a cord he had in his cell, which he used to strangle Dyer after pummeling him with punches to the face.

Two-time killer admits to murder of child molester in Norfolk prison

9-16-2016 Massachusetts:

DEDHAM -- A lifer at the state prison in Norfolk, already convicted of killing one woman in 1986 and another in 1995, stopped his third murder trial on Thursday to plead guilty to killing a fellow inmate in 2011.

Christopher Fletcher, 55, said he beat convicted child molester Richard Silva to death with a rock because he was close to his release date and he believed the 64-year-old inmate would assault children again.

Fletcher admitted to second-degree murder on the third day of his trial in Norfolk Superior Court. He was sentenced -- for the third time -- to life.

Fletcher was serving a life sentence without parole for the 1995 murder of Elizabeth Salsbury, 48, in Lunenberg. While in prison, he admitted to the 1986 murder of Peggy Sue Cavillo, 24, in Lancaster. ..Source.. by The Patriot Ledger

Tennessee inmate asking for hepatitis C treatment dies

See: Inmates with hepatitis C sue Tennessee prison officials for treatment

7-1-2016 Tennessee:

John Bilby knew he didn't have much time left.

But, at least for a few days, it appeared as though the longtime Tennessee inmate and sufferer of hepatitis C might have some hope. Diane Douglas, Bilby's wife, said he was recently told he was at the top of the list to receive the best available treatment for his hepatitis C, a chronic disease that slowly destroys the liver.

Douglas said the day after Bilby told her this, he died.

"He was a very strong man, strong minded. He realized he had done wrong, but with me and him and the chaplain, he realized God would forgive him for it," Douglas told The Tennessean.

"I was with him for 16 years, and he finally made peace with that. He was changing his life around."

Bilby, 66, died this week at Turney Center Industrial Complex in Only, Tenn., about an hour's drive southwest of Nashville. He'd been in prison for more than 27 years on charges of rape, kidnapping and assault. Patricia Lambert, Bilby's sister, said she was told he died due to complications from hepatitis C. But Lambert and Douglas said they can't get anyone to turn over official records that would show his cause of death.

The Tennessean profiled Bilby in a recent series on the pervasiveness of hepatitis C in Tennessee's prison system and the lack of treatment for almost all infected with the potential deadly disease. At the time, state prison officials acknowledged only eight of the 3,487 were receiving treatments that could cure inmates who have hepatitis C. As of Friday, a prison spokeswoman said she had asked the department's chief medical officer for an update as to the number of people infected and the number of people receiving treatment.

Inmate Who Killed Child Molester Offers Simple Explanation For Why He Did It

11-3-15 Michigan:

Steven D. Sandison, 51, a now-former inmate at Saginaw Regional Correctional Facility in Freeland, Michigan, offered a simple explanation for killing his cellmate, Theodore Dyer, 67, in October 2014.

"The reason I killed him was because he was a child molester," Sandison told Chief Circuit Judge Fred L. Borchard on Monday, MLive reported.

While being questioned by his own attorney, James Gust, Sandison willingly divulged details about killing Dyer after discovering he was incarcerated for a "really bad case" of child molestation.

"That night he was trying to justify why he did it, and I told him to keep quiet and that he'd have to leave in the morning, find a new cell. But he continued to talk about it, try to justify it,” Sandison said.

“So, he was a little bit bigger than me, so I got down, and I hit him in his face a few times. When he fell, I wrapped a cord around his neck and I took his life.”

Many sex offenders killed by inmates in California prisons

3-19-15 California:

California state prisoners are killed at a rate double the national average, and a disproportionate number of the dead are sex offenders.

ACRAMENTO, Calif. — Shortly after 2 a.m. on April 6, 2010, a guard at Salinas Valley State Prison noticed Alan Ager’s cellmate trying to stuff something under a mattress. It was Ager, blood trickling from his mouth and a cloth noose tied around his neck.

The convicted child molester died 10 days later without regaining consciousness, his death earning his cellmate a second life sentence.

California state prisoners are killed at a rate that is double the national average – and sex offenders like Ager account for a disproportionate number of victims, according to an Associated Press analysis of corrections records.

Male sex offenders made up about 15 percent of the prison population but accounted for nearly 30 percent of homicide victims, the AP found in cataloging all 78 killings that corrections officials reported since 2007, when they started releasing slain inmates’ identities and crimes.

The deaths – 23 out of 78 – come despite the state’s creation more than a decade ago of special housing units designed to protect the most vulnerable inmates, including sex offenders, often marked men behind bars because of the nature of their crimes.

Murderer says he killed Saginaw prison cellmate 'because he was a child molester'

3-2-2015 Michigan:

SAGINAW, MI -- When given the chance, a convicted murderer had straightforward explanation for killing his cellmate in October at the Saginaw Correctional Facility.

"The reason I killed him was because he was a child molester," Steven D. Sandison said Monday, Feb. 23, in Saginaw County Circuit Court.

Speaking during his plea hearing before Chief Circuit Judge Fred L. Borchard, the 51-year-old Sandison was polite, addressing the judge as "sir," in explaining why he killed Theodore Dyer on Oct. 29 at the prison in Freeland.

At Borchard's request, Sandison first answered questions from his attorney, James Gust, to establish a "factual basis" for why he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. After answering "Yes" to several of Gust's questions, Sandison then provided his explanation.

"But," Gust then asked, "you did, in fact, kill him?"

"Oh, sure," Sandison said. "Oh, sure, of course."

Borchard later in the hearing asked Sandison how he killed the 67-year-old Dyer.

"If it's all right," Sandison replied, "I can tell you where it started."

"Go ahead," Borchard said.

Federal inmate dies after attack at prison

8-15-2014 Kentucky:

PINE KNOT, Ky. (AP) — A federal inmate serving a 40-year sentence for child-related sex offenses has died after being attacked at a southern Kentucky prison.

Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn says 69-year-old Donald John Post Sr. of League City, Texas, died Wednesday as a result of injuries sustained during an attack inside his cell a day earlier at United States Penitentiary McCreary in Pine Knot.

Post pleaded guilty and was sentenced earlier this year in federal court in Texas to charges of sexual exploitation of children and possession of child pornography.

Ginn says after the attack, Post was taken to a Tennessee hospital before being transferred to the University of Kentucky Medical Center for specialized care.

An autopsy has been completed.

Ginn did not give the specifics of Post's injuries on Friday. ..Source.. by ABC36.com

Daughter: Inmate had more than 100 wounds

4-1-2014 Oklahoma:

A James Crabtree Correctional Center inmate died from more than 100 stab wounds, his daughter said she learned from the funeral home handling his cremation.

Sheryl Coleman viewed her father’s body on Wednesday, the same day an official from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner confirmed 61-year-old Timothy Dunivan died from multiple sharp force injuries.

“It was really bad. They tried to piece his face together, but they couldn’t so I only saw one side of him,” Coleman said. “There was only one stab in that one eye, underneath. It looked like they tried to cut his eyes out.”

Dunivan was found dead at the prison in Helena at about 8 a.m. Saturday.

The manner of Dunivan’s death is homicide, said Amy Elliott, chief administrative officer with the state medical examiner’s office, said in response to an Open Records Act request seeking autopsy records.
An autopsy report is pending, Elliott said.

Coleman said family members counted approximately 20 stab wounds on Dunivan’s face and learned he had wounds to his hands, arms, shoulders and back.

“The right eye, right in the corner of (his) eye, right in the eyelid, you could see there was a huge stab there,” she said. “And then the chin and the forehead.”

Rapist killed in cell in Jefferson City prison

2-17-2014 Missouri:

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. Authorities are investigating a homicide involving inmates at the Jefferson City Correctional Center.

The Cole County sheriff's office said Monday that inmate Daniel Skipper, 65, was killed Sunday in his prison cell. He had been serving a sentence for statutory rape and sodomy.

The sheriff's office identified the suspect in Skipper's slaying as his cellmate — 23-year-old Ryan Vaught, who was serving a sentence for armed criminal action and assault. He has been placed in a segregated unit.

The sheriff's office said inmates in a neighboring cell reported hearing a violent disturbance. The sheriff's office says Skipper was found with multiple wounds to his face and scalp and had a piece of fabric wrapped around his neck.

An autopsy is planned for Tuesday. ..Source.. by Post-Dispatch

Dead Corcoran inmate ID'd; cellmate suspected in killing

5-28-2013 California:

A Corcoran State Prison inmate whose death last week is being investigated as a homicide has been identified.

The dead inmate is Douglas Eugene Willard, 63, of Hemet in Riverside County, the Kings County Coroner's Office said Tuesday.

Willard was found unresponsive in his cell about 8:30 p.m. Thursday, prison officials said. He was taken to an outside hospital where he was pronounced dead at 9:16 p.m. His cellmate has been identified as the suspect, authorities said.

The cellmate, Allen Duane Queen, 48, is serving 259 years for several convictions from San Joaquin County, including attempted murder of a government officer, possession of a weapon by a prisoner, assault with a deadly weapon of a custody officer and making terrorist threats, authorities said.

Willard was serving a six-year sentence from Los Angeles County for lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 14 and petty theft. He had served three previous prison terms. ..Source.. by The Fresno Bee