(January 29, 2008)--State prison officials say a death row inmate evidently killed himself in his cell overnight.

A Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman says corrections officers found Jesus Flores in his Polunsky Unit cell about 4 a.m. Tuesday with throat and forehead lacerations.

Spokeswoman Michelle Lyons says he was pronounced dead an hour later.

Lyons says Flores tried to use his own blood to scrawl a message on his cell wall, but it was illegible.

He was convicted of capital murder in the May 2001 shooting of Harris County Sheriff's Deputy Joseph Dennis.

Dennis, 35, was shot in the head as he handcuffed Flores after arresting him for car theft.

Flores is the first Texas death-row suicide since October 2006, when Central Texas inmate Michael Johnson killed himself 15 hours before he would have been executed for the Sept. 10, 1995 robbery and murder of 27-year-old Jeff Wetterman, who was working at his parents’ Lorena convenience store and had been married for just three weeks.

Prison officials said guards found Johnson unresponsive in this cell.

According to Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson, Johnson used some sort of metal blade or razor to cut his right jugular vein and an artery inside his right elbow.

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Latest Comments

Posted by: KTH Location: Waco on Jan 31, 2008 at 10:01 AM

My only concern is that Flores has abused the right of the government to carry out justice by taking it upon himself to do justice, which is pure vigilantism. If more people do that, we have only a system of anarchy and there are no assurances of our rights being protected by the state. Now, I certainly wish that the state would carry out justice more swiftly so that folks like Mr. Flores would not believe that they have to take it into their own hands. He should have been executed, seems to me, about 7 years ago...

Posted by: concerned Location: mexia on Jan 30, 2008 at 01:46 PM

what irritates me is this.... they sit in prison eating usually good food, watch color tv's get medical and dental and eye care, get educated, there are americans working everyday that dont get all of that....... i have no sympathy for them.... if our troops defending our country are living with less.... and there are plenty of hard working people living with less, why in the world should they get more? PUNISHMENT?? LOTS would love that form.........show compassion for the victims NOT THE CRIMINALS !

Posted by: Bob Location: Kempner on Jan 30, 2008 at 10:42 AM

Amy from Baytown, I could care less about that animal or his family! He made the DECISION to do what he did and was put on death row based on that DECISION. The fact that he killed himself just shows what a coward he is. People like you who always try and justify peoples actions make me SICK!. There is no room in society for people like this!

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