Inmate found dead at Angola
ST. FRANCISVILLE — Autopsy
results are pending in the apparent suicide of a Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola inmate, West Feliciana Parish Sheriff J. Austin Daniel said Monday.
Daniel said Angola authorities told deputies they found Kriss Lane, 33, hanging in his cell at Angola’s main prison complex shortly before 3 p.m. Friday.
Sheriff’s detectives and a representative of the parish coroner ruled Lane’s death a suicide, but an autopsy was scheduled for Monday, the sheriff said.
Lane, formerly of Ruskin, Fla., pleaded guilty in 2006 to manslaughter and simple robbery in the July 19, 2003, slaying of Atlanta lighting designer Shawn Johnson at a New Orleans hotel.
Lane, who was nicknamed “Worry,” was accused of clubbing Johnson over the head with a champagne bottle and holding his head under water in a hot tub until the victim died, according to a 2006 article by the Associated Press.
A New Orleans judge sentenced Lane to the maximum 40-year prison term for manslaughter and five years on the robbery count.
He had been at Angola since July 10, 2006, Daniel said.