Associated Press
LIVINGSTON, Texas — State prison officials say a death-row inmate apparently killed himself in his cell overnight.
A Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman says corrections officers found Jesus Flores in his Polunsky Unit cell about 4 a.m. today with throat and forehead lacerations. Spokeswoman Michelle Lyons says he was pronounced dead an hour later.
Lyons says Flores tried to use his own blood to scrawl a message on his cell wall, but it was illegible.
He was convicted of capital murder in the May 2001 shooting of Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy Joseph Dennis. Officials say Flores shot Dennis in the head during a struggle.
Flores is the first Texas death-row suicide since October 2006, when Michael Johnson killed himself.
Copyright 2008 The Houston Chronicle