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| S.D. Inmate Pleads Guilty to Killing Cellmate |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 06/26/2003 |
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A South Dakota State Penitentiary inmate has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of his cellmate. A sentencing date will be set later for Christopher Hill, 27. Charges of first- and second-degree murder and habitual offender charges will be dropped at the sentencing, authorities said. Hill admitted killing Steven Heckel, 49, in August. Hill had been sentenced to five years for aggravated assault in a 1995 Pennington County case. Since then, he has been sentenced for crimes committed while in prison, including aggravated assault and a possession of a weapon. Neither the South Dakota Attorney General's Office or the public defender would comment on the case until after sentencing. Heckel's death and that of inmate Andrew Young sparked an investigation of the penitentiary by outside experts, including Charles Kehoe, president of the American Correctional Association, and David Sandahl, an expert in accreditation under the standards of the American Correctional Association for more than 18 years. The report said prison officials had no way to predict the deaths of the inmates. Young, 23, was killed by cellmate Christopher Fonseca on July 6, 2002. Fonseca, who was sentenced to life without parole last month, confessed to the murder during a motions hearing where he accepted a plea bargain in May. |
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