Inmate's death probed as a homicide, foul play suspected

CARLISLE, Ind. (AP) - Indiana State Police are investigating the death of an inmate who was found unresponsive Sunday in his southwestern Indiana prison cell as a homicide.

Foul play is suspected in Kevin J. Carpenter's death at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, state police said Monday. The state agency said it's investigating his death at the request of prison officials and Sullivan County's prosecutor.

Prison employees found Carpenter, 57, unresponsive in his cell about 5:40 a.m. Sunday, and tried without success to resuscitate him, police said.

The results of an autopsy performed Monday at a Terre Haute hospital are pending.

Carpenter, who was from the northern Indiana city of Churubusco, had been incarcerated with the Indiana Department of Correction since February 2011, police said.

Records indicate he was serving a 50-year sentence for a 2002 conviction in Allen County on a charge of a prisoner in possession of a dangerous device or material, The Journal Gazette reported.

That conviction stemmed from an incident in which Carpenter, then incarcerated at the Allen County Jail, was found with a homemade Plexiglas knife in his shoe after another inmate alerted officers. The Journal Gazette reported at that time that Carpenter had planned to use the weapon to harm a confinement officer.