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| 65 year-old Angola inmate hangs himself |
| By The Advocate |
| Published: 05/23/2005 |
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Louisiana State Penitentiary Warden Burl Cain said last Monday a 65-year-old inmate committed suicide by hanging the week before while his cell mate slept undisturbed in another bunk. "It was the first suicide I've ever seen in a two-man cell," Cain added. Cain and West Feliciana Parish sheriff's detectives identified the victim as Aubrey Komurke. He died about 5:30 a.m. May 13. Komurke was serving a 60-year sentence as a habitual offender for attempted aggravated rape and aggravated crime against nature resulting from an Orleans Parish arrest in 1988. He had an extensive record of arrests for sexual offenses, including those with minors as victims, Cain said. Cain said Komurke tore a thin strip of cloth from the sheet, attached the ends from one bedpost to the opposite bedpost and placed his head through a loop in the middle. "He put his earphones on and leaned forward. You couldn't see the strip from the sheet. It looked like he was sitting on the bed, listening to the radio," the warden said. Capt. Spence Dilworth, chief of detectives for the West Feliciana Parish Sheriff's Office, said detectives found no signs of foul play caused by any other party. "He was 6 foot, 4 (inches tall) and weighed 230 pounds. If anyone had tried to do something to him, he would have raised a ruckus," Dilworth said. Komurke was an accomplished artist who had a painting included in a 2002 exhibit at the State Archives. Cain said the inmate's eyesight was failing, however, and a woman who visited him on a regular basis recently moved to another state. Komurke was housed in an area of Angola's Main Prison known as a "working cellblock" because the inmates are taken out during the day to work in other areas of the prison. No one claimed his body, and he was buried in Angola's Point Lookout Cemetery with an inmate-led funeral service, Assistant Warden Cathy Fontenot said. |
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