Federal Inmate Sentenced for Murdering Cellmate

               BEAUMONT, Texas – A federal inmate has been sentenced for murdering his cellmate in a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney Stephen J. Cox today. 

               Carroll Ellis Hayes, 40, of Mobile, AL, pleaded guilty on Jan. 27, 2020 to 2^nd degree murder and was sentenced to 360 months in federal prison today by U.S. District Judge Marcia A. Crone today.  

               According to information presented in court, Hayes was serving a sentence for federal firearms violations and was in the Special Housing Unit (SHU) at the Federal Correctional Complex’s Medium Facility in Beaumont, Texas.  On Feb. 9, 2018, another prisoner moved into the same cell as Hayes, and within an hour, a correctional officer discovered the new cellmate motionless on the floor—he had been beaten and strangled.  Correctional officers attempted CPR before the cellmate was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

               This case was investigated by the Bureau of Prisons and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Anderson.