Cole County deputies are investigating a homicide at the Jefferson City Correctional Center.
Authorities say 65-year-old Daniel Skipper was found dead after inmates in a nearby cell alerted guards when they said they heard a violent disturbance.
Skipper’s cell-mate, 23-year-old Ryan Vaught, was immediately taken to a segregated unit. Prison Officers report that Skipper had a piece of fabric wrapped around his neck and several wounds to the face and head. Efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.
Capt. John Wheeler says both inmates were being housed in the facility’s 7 House. An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 18; the victim’s family has been notified.
Skipper was serving a 50-year sentence for first-degree statutory rape and sodomy out of Lawrence County. Vaught is serving a 30-year sentence for armed criminal action and assault on law enforcement, vehicle tampering, and firearms theft. Cole County authorities say he was sentenced in 2007 for charges out of Mercer Co., Mo., along the Iowa border. His home address at the time was listed as Kansas City.