Shortly after he told a prison official he had come to terms with committing a double murder, an inmate in the state’s top security prison apparently killed himself.
Kevin Fears, 36, was found dead Saturday morning in his single cell at the Colorado State Penitentiary in Cañon City, said Alison Morgan, spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections.
His official cause of death has not been released, but prison officials are not investigating anyone. He did not leave a suicide note, she said.
Fears, who once pleaded for his own life to a jury, killed a witness and another man at the request of a jailed friend who was going on trial for robbery.
“He recently accepted responsibility for his crime to a DOC official,” Morgan said.
She said he also agreed to start participating in prison programs in hopes of getting moved to a less-secure prison.
All inmates at the prison are in 23-hour lockdown. They participate in programs through television in their cells.
Fears had been at the penitentiary since October 1993. Morgan said it was the first suicide at the prison.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-820-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
