Man held on suspicion of murder after prison inmate found dead in cell
West Mercia Police said it received a report from HMP Stoke Heath, near Market Drayton, Shropshire, that the man, in his 40s, was found dead in the cell at around 7.40am on Tuesday.
A 26-year-old man was arrested in connection with the incident after officers attended the prison. He remains in custody.
Superintendent Carl Moore said: 'Our thoughts are with the family of the man who has lost his life.
'An investigation has begun to establish the full circumstances of his death.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Person struck, killed on I-435 in Kansas City
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City traffic investigators shut down the northbound lanes of Interstate 435 between 87th Street and Gregory for three hours after a person walking or standing in a lane was struck and killed early Thursday morning, police said. Kansas City police said this happened at about 1:15 a.m. when the driver of a black Ford Focus struck the person as the car was headed north. The victim was declared dead at the scene. Family stunned after desecration of loved one's grave at Kansas City cemetery The driver was sent to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The interstate has since reopened and the crash is under investigation. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Oklahoma Pediatrician Accused of Staging 4-Year-Old Daughter's Drowning to Cover Up Her Murder: Police
An Oklahoma pediatrician has been accused of staging an accidental drowning to conceal the murder of her 4-year-old daughter in Florida Dr. Neha Gupta was taken into custody in Oklahoma City and will be extradited to Florida, where she faces charges of first-degree murder, according to the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office A June 29 autopsy called Gupta's story about her death into questionAn Oklahoma pediatrician has been arrested and will be extradited to Florida on suspicions that she is responsible for the murder of her 4-year-old daughter. In a Wednesday, July 2, press release, the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office confirmed that Dr. Neha Gupta had been taken into custody in Oklahoma with the assistance of the United States Marshals Service and the Oklahoma City Police Department and is set to be charged with first-degree murder. Gupta, 36, has been accused of murdering her daughter Aria Talathi, 4, and staging it to look like an accidental drowning, per CBS News. According to the sheriff's office press release, first responders from the Village of El Portal Police Department and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue responded to reports of "drowning child in a residential pool." The child was discovered "unresponsive" and taken to the hospital where she was pronounced dead. Police said Gupta and her daughter had traveled from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and were staying at a short-term rental at the time of the incident. The alleged drowning took place in the early hours of Friday, June 27, according to an arrest warrant obtained by PEOPLE from the sheriff's office. Gupta reportedly told police she and her daughter were asleep when she heard a loud noise around 3:20 a.m. She told the authorities that she woke up and noticed that the sliding door in the room was open, and once she walked outside she saw her daughter in the water. She allegedly said that she attempted to rescue her daughter herself before calling for help as she was unable to swim. The call was made around 3:40 a.m. First responders reported that Aria was "submerged in the deep end of the swimming pool" when they arrived. She was pronounced dead at Jackson Memorial Hospital around 4:28 a.m., according to the arrest warrant. A June 29 autopsy called Gupta's story into question. No water was found in Aria's lungs or stomach, which would have been evidence that she died via drowning. Instead, doctors found "cuts within the mouth and bruising within the cheeks" that were not related to life-saving services rendered after she was pulled from the pool. An official cause of death has not yet been determined; however, the arrest warrant reported that "the injuries are consistent with asphyxiation by smothering." The autopsy also called Gupta's recounting of the previous day into question. She said that she and Aria ate dinner around 9 p.m. However, the girl's stomach was "empty." "Furthermore, 'the subject' attempted to conceal the killing of the 'deceased victim' by staging an accidental drowning within the swimming pool of a rental property," the arrest document reads. Speaking to PEOPLE, Gutpa's attorney Richard L. Cooper said, "Dr Gupta was involved in a nasty divorce case but was otherwise compliant with court orders. My client had multiple opportunities to flee but instead stayed and cooperated with law enforcement, answered all their questions, etc. My client feels betrayed by the MDSO. We look forward to a thorough investigation and more facts/evidence to come to light which will hopefully show that there was no basis to arrest a grieving mother going through an inconceivable tragedy." In a statement shared with CBS News Miami, he slammed the "flimsy arrest warrant." "Let's assume for a second that my client is innocent: She has had the worst tragedy imaginable occur, and then she's locked up without bond and is missing her own daughter's funeral. Common decency would dictate that a little more than 1 day's worth of investigation transpire before making such a dramatic move." Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. According to the arrest warrant, Gupta and her ex-husband were in the middle of a custody battle and the girl's father didn't know she was visiting Florida and staying at the rental home where the alleged drowning happened. PEOPLE has reached out to the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office, the U.S. Marshals Services, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue and the Village of El Portal Police Department for comment. Read the original article on People
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Unpacking Bryan Kohberger's guilty plea deal to avoid death penalty in Idaho student killings
Bryan Kohberger appeared expressionless as a judge asked if he murdered four Idaho college students in their off-campus home, answering 'yes' to each name called out in the courtroom Wednesday. At a change-of-plea hearing before state district Judge Steven Hippler in Boise, Idaho, the courtroom was packed with family members of the victims as Kohberger, a 30-year-old former PhD student of criminology, admitted his guilt to all five counts in the indictment and entered a plea deal that removes the possibility of the death penalty. Kohberger had been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary in Latah County, Idaho, in the fatal stabbings Ethan Chapin, 20; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Madison Mogen, 21, in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, in their Moscow, Idaho, home. CNN trial correspondent Jean Casarez has been closely following the investigation and was in the courtroom when Kohberger admitted guilt. Here she breaks down some of the key pieces of the case and the plea deal: Some of the questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity. Q: Why did prosecutors decide to strike a plea deal now, despite strong evidence including DNA, surveillance and cell phone data? A: I think that's one of the biggest unanswered questions. We don't know. Here's what we do know: Prosecutors hold the key to whether a trial goes forward or whether there is a plea deal. This was a very solid case, and the defense had lost so much – they were not going to be able to present an alibi because they couldn't establish there was anyone who saw him in another location when the killings took place. I was talking to a prosecutor who told me this case is the case of a lifetime for a prosecutor. But this trial was going to cost a lot of money. This is Moscow's case. Latah County would have to pay for it all. The case had been moved to Boise to ensure a fair trial for Kohberger. So, one can only surmise that judicial economy or saving money went into this, right? Q: What do you think tipped the scales toward avoiding the death penalty for both the defense and prosecution? A: This was the only bargaining tool. They bargained away the death penalty when he agreed to serve life in prison without any possibility of parole. In 2003, serial killer Gary Ridgway bargained away the death penalty but there were conditions. He was going to tell authorities where all of the other victims were that he killed and he did that. Here, there are no conditions. Q: Without a trial, there's no public adjudication of any motive. How does that impact any closure in this case for the families and the public? A: One of the issues with several of the families is that this was just too easy, that he was going to be able to sign the dotted line, done deal, then he can live his life forever. They wanted answers. They wanted to know if anybody else knew about it, where the murder weapon came from, why he went to that particular house, why he went up to the third floor. And those questions conceivably will never be answered. If you look at what the father of Kaylee Goncalves said, he's very upset because he believes no one is caring about these four young lives that were taken so soon right as they were beginning their adulthood. The family of Madison Mogen spoke outside of court, and they said through their attorney that this could be closure, they can move on and it's alright. But the father of Xana Kernodle is saying it's not alright, that they're not going to ever really know the truth. Q: What were the reactions and emotions you could sense in the room when he admitted guilt? A: It was very tense in the courtroom. Very tense but very silent. The media had been told to not show any emotion in the courtroom, and I wonder if the families were told that because they were so intense, they were staring at Kohberger very strongly. They were staring at the judge very strongly, but I did not see actual emotion coming out of them except from Kaylee Goncalves' aunt. That's who I heard it was. She had a Kleenex, she was crying so hard, but it was silent – she wasn't making any audible sounds at all. When the prosecutor said, 'We have still never found the knife, the murder weapon,' I looked at Kohberger. I wanted to see if there was a reaction because there's one person that knows where that murder weapon is, and it's him. There was no reaction to that. He didn't move a muscle in his face. Kohberger never once looked at the courtroom, looked at the people in the courtroom. He was in a stoic gaze with no emotion whatsoever. It was just like he did this every day. When he had to take the oath that he would tell the truth, Kohberger jumped up and put his hand up. The judge said, 'You don't have to stand up. I know you're trying to be respectful to the court, but you don't have to stand up.' Q: After Kohberger is sentenced, what happens to the gag order that has kept the parties from speaking publicly? A: After sentencing, the case is over, so the judge has to lift that gag order because they have a First Amendment right to speak. The gag order was to preserve a fair trial before a jury for Kohberger. Both sides are not requesting a pre-sentencing report, which is normally done before sentencing. Sentencing is going to take place at this point on July 23. The prosecutor said they want to give all family members a chance to speak. Q: Prosecutor Bill Thompson choked up a couple of times – most notably as he was finishing his recitation of the facts and said the names of the four victims. What did you make of that and was there any significance behind that moment to you, having covered this case from the beginning? A: I've never seen him get emotional in any pretrial hearing. This is the first time, but a prosecutor has empathy for victims because although they represent the people, they indirectly represent the victims. That's who they care about. Maybe it got to him at that moment, but I'm sure that some of the family members would say, 'Well, if that emotion is there for those victims as we saw in court, why didn't you structure the plea deal so he had to provide some answers and tell us why he did this?' Q: What were the elements of the plea deal that the families of the victims would have liked to see or leave out? A: Steve Goncalves said he wanted more facts. Not only answers to why the killings happened, but did anybody know about it or help? What happened with the knife? Why that house? Why that floor? Because in pretrial hearings, it has been said there was no connection to the victims. Q: What can we expect from the upcoming sentencing hearing? Will families get a final chance to address him in court? A: The big thing is going to be the victim impact statements. Attorneys don't have to argue because there's nothing to decide. A decision has been made with the agreement, so it's the victims' families. Some courts allow family members to directly look at and address the defendant, while other courts do not. It'll be interesting to see the parameter and it'll be interesting to see what they say. But here's the big one: Bryan Kohberger should be given a chance to address the court. In a normal sentencing, they are allowed to make a formal statement. Usually, that is to beg for mercy because you're about to be sentenced. In this case it would just be something he wanted to say. Will he speak? Will he say something to the families? Q: Can Kohberger appeal some aspect of his plea? A: He is waiving his right to appeal, so he will live the rest of his life within a prison in Idaho, managed by the Department of Corrections. Q: Some victims' family members complained about how quickly a plea deal was reached. Does it always happen this quickly in similar cases? A: No, it doesn't happen as quickly. The family members do not live in Boise. They had to conceivably change plans, take off work, and it's six hours from Moscow to Boise. That's quite the drive right there. They don't all live in Moscow, but they do not live in Boise. So it's highly unusual. I think it's stunning that when Kohberger was posed the questions with their names: 'Did you intentionally, deliberately and with premeditation murder Xana Kernodle?' And he responded, 'yes.' No emotion at all.
