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GUNNISON — The death of an inmate at the Central Utah Correctional Facility in September is now being treated as a homicide investigation, the State Bureau of Investigation has confirmed.
And one of the inmates being investigated in connection with the killing was convicted of murder and sentenced to prison just a few months ago.
On Sept. 24, the Utah Department of Corrections announced that Steven Davis, 66, was found unresponsive in his cell and pronounced deceased by medical personnel. No cause of death was given at the time.
Davis had been incarcerated since 1983 for a sex offense and parole violations. Agents with the Utah State Bureau of Investigation were asked to handle the investigation into his death.
Davis' cellmate at the time of his death was 23-year-old Gage Anthony Dinehart. In May, Dinehart pleaded guilty to murder for shooting and killing his mother. He shot Nicki Dinehart, 41, three times at close range in a Pleasant Grove street. Police say he had been arguing with his mother earlier in the day, was agitated and demanded money from her. Dinehart was sentenced in June to a term of 15 years to life in prison.
After Davis' death, investigators reviewed surveillance video showing both Dinehart and Davis going into their cell "after lockdown the previous night," according to a search warrant affidavit. Both men were also accounted for during a check about 9:15 p.m.
About 6:30 a.m. the next day, "the cell was unsecured. From reviewing the surveillance videos, Dinehart was the only person seen going in and out of the cell other than two food handlers who took food inside. (Corrections) staff was alerted by Dinehart that something was wrong with his cellmate. When (corrections) staff entered the room, they observed the deceased male lying in his bed with a blanket over his body. Medical staff moved the blanket and confirmed that Dinehart's cellmate was deceased," the affidavit states.
Investigators say Davis was found with a braided cloth around his neck. But staffers also "observed possible defensive wounds on Dinehart's face," the warrant says.
When asked to comment on possible suspects in the case, a spokeswoman with the State Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday only said the case is still active and that "the appropriate protocols for a homicide investigation" are being followed.
