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| Mont. Death Row Inmate Hangs Self |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 07/09/2003 |
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A Montana death row inmate serving sentences for six murders in prison and a triple murder in Glendive in 1987 was found hanged in his cell at the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge early Tuesday morning. Prison officials, on a routine security check shortly after 4 a.m. discovered Douglas D. Turner, 31, hanging in an apparent suicide, prison officials said. Cheryl Bolton, a prison spokeswoman, said Turner had been in the maximum-security wing of the prison since 1990 and was alone in his cell. Bolton said she had no other details on the hanging. The state crime lab, Department of Corrections investigators and the Powell County coroner are investigating the death, she said. Turner first came to the Montana State Prison in 1988 after he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three 100-year sentences for entering his neighbors' home in Glendive and fatally shooting James, Ora and Sharon Brooks. Turner, 16 at the time and on a drinking binge, had just been released from an alcohol treatment program. While in prison, Turner was sentenced to death for his role in the 1990 beating death of another inmate in the prison yard. Turner was tried with fellow inmate William Gollehon for killing Gerald Pileggi. Prosecutors said the pair had harassed Pileggi because he was a sex offender and then killed him because he had reported their taunting to officials. Shortly after that incident, Turner was charged with kidnapping, burglary and five counts of murder for his part in the fatal 1991 prison riot. He was 19 at the time. He was convicted in July 1992 of all but the burglary charge. One of the inmates killed in the riot, Ed Davison, was scheduled to be a key witness against Turner in the trial for the Pileggi murder. Turner's second appeal of his conviction for the 1990 prison murder was pending before the Montana Supreme Court. In 2000, the state Supreme Court rejected Turner's claim that he should be able to withdraw his guilty plea for the Glendive murders because he received bad legal advice. His initial appeal of that decision was rejected. Bolton said Turner recently had not been a management problem at the prison and hadn't had a disciplinary write-up in more than seven years. He was allowed outside his cell in a 'day room' every other day for an hour and a half, she said. |
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