An inmate at the state correctional facility in Rush City, Minn., is dead and authorities say his death may have been a homicide.
Corrections officers found James Francis Howard in his cell suffering from injuries to his face and head while doing rounds about 11:30 p.m. Sunday. They entered the cell and performed lifesaving measures until paramedics arrived. But Howard, 56, was pronounced dead about 50 minutes later, a statement from the Minnesota Department of Corrections said.
Howard's cellmate, a 29-year-old man, was arrested.
"The death is being investigated as a possible homicide," the statement said.
Howard and the suspect shared a cell in a temporary housing unit, which means they were not actively engaged in employment or programming.
Howard was serving a second-degree murder sentence for using a machete with an 18-inch blade to attack his 68-year-old mother in April 2011 in the home they shared on Stalker Lake near Dalton, about 20 miles southeast of Fergus Falls.
Barbara Howard suffered a skull fracture on the left side of her head and several of her fingers were nearly severed as she tried to block the machete swipes. She died two weeks later, on Mother's Day, court records show.
At the time, James Howard told paramedics that he was trying to end his mother's pain from cancer and diabetes, the criminal complaint said.
