BESSEMER, Ala. (AP) - A 44-year-old Alabama inmate serving a life sentence for the deaths of two people has died.
Tommy Lee Rutledge was found unresponsive Tuesday inside his private cell at William Donaldson Correctional Facility, the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office said.
Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates said an autopsy was performed Wednesday but the cause of death has not yet been determined. There is no evidence of foul play, al.com reported.
Rutledge was convicted of capital murder in the Dec. 22, 1993 shooting deaths of Kevin Edwards and Radshaw Whitman in Jefferson County. He was 17 when the murders happened.
The slayings took place when a group of men were hanging out, smoking marijuana, at one of their grandmother’s house. It was about 5 a.m. when another man there said he was awakened by the sound of gunshots. He testified he saw Rutledge standing over Edwards and Whitman with a gun in his hand. That man said Rutledge put the gun to his head and ordered him to search Edwards’ body. Rutledge also forced him to help him drag the bodies into the kitchen, where Rutledge shot them each again in the head and dumped trash over them.
Rutledge then set fire to the trash and to the couch. The witness was then tied to a chair with his mouth taped shut, but he managed to escape after several hours and call police.
Rutledge was convicted in 1995 of capital murder and sentenced to life without parole. In 2017, he was re-sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole because of his age at the time of the murders.
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