An inmate of the state prison in Cameron is charged with murdering his wife, who choked to death on a balloon while she was in the prison’s visiting room. The prosecutor says the balloon was filled with drugs she was trying to smuggle to her husband, Hubert Holmes, Jr. Holmes was already in prison for a drug conviction in Boone County in 1987. Investigators say they found four other balloons on the body of Gayle Holmes. They contained marijuana. The prosecutor has charged Holmes with murder because he considers the woman’s death part of a conspiracy to smuggle drugs into the prison.
