A federal inmate already serving multiple prison terms for murder has received a sentence of life without the possibility of parole for killing a fellow inmante, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Joshua T. Mebane, 29, of Silver Spring, Maryland, was sentenced on April 14 by U.S. Judge James R. Sweeney II, according to court documents. Mebane pleaded guilty to first-degree murder on Oct. 23.
Prosecutors said Mebane was an inmate at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute and was serving a 45-year term in a murder case from the District of Columbia. Mebane also was later convicted of murder and attempted murder in a 2012 Maryland crime, for which he received multiple life sentences.
Prosecutors said that on Jan. 26, 2016, inmate Michael Tucker moved into Mebane’s cell at the prison complex.
Two days later, officers went to retrieve Mebane for a medical appointment and called for both inmates to come to the cell door. Mebane reportedly answered, “My cellie [cell mate] is dead. … I killed my cellie on Wednesday.”
Officers entered the cell to investigate and found Michael Tucker lying face-up in the bottom bunk bed covered by a blanket. His body was cold to the touch and without a pulse. Life saving measures were begun but were not successful.
The medical examiner ruled the official cause of death to be asphyxiation and determined the manner of death as homicide.
The FBI and the Bureau of Prisons investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kyle M. Sawa and Meredith Wood prosecuted.
“This life sentence reflects our office’s commitment to justice for all victims, including those who are incarcerated in federal correctional facilities,” said John E. Childress, acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana.
“The horrific murder deserves one of the harshest penalties allowed under the law, and I sincerely hope that the completion of this prosecution brings some measure of closure and peace to Mr. Tucker’s family,” he said in a news release.