Two Inmates Found Hanged In McAlester Prison

Associated Press

McALESTER, Oklahoma -- Corrections officials say two inmates have been found dead in their cells at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

Deputy Warden Linda Morgan told the McAlester News-Capital that 36-year-old James Thomas and 42-year-old Adam Wright were found hanged early Thursday as employees were performing an inmate count.

Morgan says both were in single cells located close together in H-unit, where new inmates, those being disciplined and those on death row are housed.

Records show Thomas was serving a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole out of Oklahoma County for the 1993 killing of Jessie Roberts, his 81-year-old neighbor. Thomas also was sentenced to 400 years for raping Roberts.

Wright was serving a life without parole term out of Custer County for the 1988 deaths of an Anadarko man and his grandson.