Inmate in Mid-County sentenced for killing cellmate

Published 12:22 am Tuesday, July 28, 2020

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BEAUMONT — A prisoner in a Mid-County facility saw his incarceration extended by three decades following a deadly encounter.

U.S. Attorney Stephen J. Cox said the federal inmate was sentenced for killing his cellmate.

U.S. District Judge Marcia A. Crone sentenced Carroll Ellis Hayes to 30 years in federal prison.

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Friday’s sentencing followed Hayes’ Jan. 27 guilty plea to second-degree murder.

According to information presented in court, Hayes was serving a sentence for federal firearms violations and was in the Special Housing Unit at the Federal Correctional Complex’s Medium Facility in Beaumont.

On Feb. 9, 2018, another prisoner moved into the same cell as Hayes, and within an hour, a correctional officer discovered the new cellmate motionless on the floor — he had been beaten and strangled.

Correctional officers attempted CPR before the cellmate was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Hayes is 40 years old and from Mobile, Alabama.

The Bureau of Prisons investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Anderson prosecuted.