Idaho prison inmate, serving 1-8 years for DUI, found dead in cell; cellmate was serving life term for murder
An Idaho state prison inmate is dead and his cellmate has been sent to the Idaho Maximum Security Institution while the case is investigated; an autopsy this afternoon on Glenn Arthur Cox, 52, who was serving one to eight years in prison on a DUI conviction from Bonneville County, concluded that Cox was beaten to death in a homicide. His cellmate at the Idaho State Correctional Institution, a medium-security prison, was James Junior Nice, 45, who is serving a life term for a first-degree murder conviction in Twin Falls County.
The Idaho Department of Correction reports that correctional staff responded to a report that Cox had been assaulted in his cell shortly before 1 a.m. today; guards found him unresponsive on the floor. Paramedics were called and CPR was initiated, but Cox was pronounced dead at 1:45 a.m.
IDOC requested the Ada County Sheriff’s Office to investigate, and detectives have been gathering evidence at the prison, where the cell was declared a crime scene.
IMSI is a 1,446-bed, medium-security men’s prison south of Boise.
Nice was sentenced in November of 2006; Cox in May of 2015.
According to Jeff Ray, IDOC spokesman, Nice was classified as medium-custody, while Cox was classified as minimum-custody. “Minimum-custody inmates are often incarcerated in medium-custody facilities until a minimum-security bed becomes available,” Ray said.
The custody classification for an inmate is determined based on a list of factors including crime, criminal history, escape history, age, institutional behavior, proximity to release, and pending charges, along with risk and programming needs.
The two inmates had been sharing a cell since July 23.
“Nice’s record while incarcerated shows no history of violence,” Ray said in an email. “Based on IDOC’s classification system and the department’s housing practices, the inmates’ placement was appropriate.”
According to the Associated Press, Nice is serving three life sentences for killing his twin 6-year-old boys and his 2-year-old daughter with rat poison and medications at their Twin Falls home in 2005.
