Convicted Baton Rouge serial killer Kenneth Gleason found dead at Angola from suicide, DOC says

[Eugene]

Last month: Life sentence for white Louisianan who killed Black man (Associated Press)

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Source: The Advocate

Convicted Baton Rouge serial killer Kenneth Gleason found dead at Angola from suicide, DOC says

BY LEA SKENE | STAFF WRITER SEP 22, 2021 - 2:53 PM

About a month after he was sentenced to life without parole for the killings of two Black men, convicted Baton Rouge serial killer Kenneth Gleason killed himself shortly after his transfer to the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, prison officials say.

A Department of Corrections spokesman said Gleason "committed suicide at the prison around midnight Wednesday. While making routine rounds, correctional officers discovered Gleason unresponsive and hanging in his cell."

Gleason was a newcomer to Angola, the notorious maximum security prison in West Feliciana Parish that houses thousands of men serving life and other extremely long sentences. Officials said Gleason was transferred there on Monday, less than two days before his death.

He was alone in a cell, being quarantined for 14 days per protocols for new inmates, DOC spokesman Ken Pastorick said. The DOC and local law enforcement are investigating the case, and Pastorick declined to release any other details.

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Read more: https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/crime_police/article_b64e54d2-1bde-11ec-9076-fb47c559f272.html

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/louisiana-race-and-ethnicity-13d8e9a8545c600e999bb053bdf1fac2


Kenneth Gleason is shown in an undated booking photo provided by the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office. Gleason has received a life sentence for the apparently random killing of a Black man in a park. He also is accused of killing another Black man at a bus stop and firing into the home of a Black family as part of a string of attacks that police said may have been racially motivated. Gleason was found guilty of first-degree murder in April for the killing of Donald Smart, The Advocate reported. Smart, 49, was shot in a park near Louisiana State University as he was walking to his overnight shift as a restaurant dishwasher in September 2017. (East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office via AP)


At the Violent Crime Unit, Kenneth Gleason is arrested in two killings Tuesday Sept. 19, 2017, in Baton Rouge, La.. (Advocate staff photo by Bill Feig)

[ZZenith]

2. Why do you think that?

[LeftInTX]

3. I don't get that impression

He wasn’t charged with a hate crime, but an FBI agent testified that Gleason searched the internet around the time of the crimes for topics including Nazi propaganda and white nationalism. Law enforcement told The Associated Press that officers who searched his home found a handwritten copy of an Adolf Hitler speech.

Investigators said ballistics tests and DNA on shell casings linked the shootings. Jarrett Ambeau, one of Gleason’s attorneys, said jurors told both parties after the trial they felt that proof was strong, according to The Advocate.

“Forensic science evidence is very difficult to overcome,” he said.