2 inmates from the Coast die in state custody. 1 was serving time for murder.
Albert McGee, convicted in the 1989 murder of a U.S. Navy crew member in Jackson County, is one of five state inmates who have died in custody within four days.
The cause and manner of McGee’s death and of the four others are pending autopsies, the Mississippi Department of Corrections said in a news release Monday.
A second inmate from the Mississippi Coast who died was serving time on a drug conviction in Harrison County.
McGee, 57, died Thursday, Aug. 2, the anniversary date of his conviction in Jackson County in 1990. He was serving a life prison term for a murder in Pascagoula and two years for possession of a controlled substance from an Oct. 15, 1990 conviction, according to the MDOC.
McGee was found guilty in 1990 in the Feb. 25, 1989 killing and robbery of 18-year-old Colon Fermin of Buffalo, N.Y.
A coroner’s report showed Fermin had been stabbed 39 times and his throat was slashed.
McGee, 28 at the time and from Gautier, was found standing over Fermin’s body counting money later used to buy crack cocaine, Sun Herald archives show. McGee was unemployed.
Fermin was robbed of several hundred dollars in a Pascagoula apartment shared by Charles Wilson, 22, of Detroit, Michigan; and George Beckwith, then 19, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, reports show.
Wilson and Beckwith were crew members with Fermin on the USS WASP, an amphibious assault ship that was being built at Ingalls Shipbuilding.
Fermin’s body was found two days later in a sleeping bag in Gautier.
McGee maintained his innocence at trial, claiming he had been framed.
Beckwith received a 20-year prison term for manslaughter in Fermin’s death.
Wilson received a five-year term on an accessory conviction.
The other deaths
McGee was one of three inmates who died in recent days at the South Mississippi Correctional Institution in Leakesville, according to the MDOC.
Robert Joseph, 38, died Sunday, Aug. 5, at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County. He was sentenced to three years in Harrison County on April 26, 2018, for possession of a controlled substance.
Jack Glisson, 70, died Sunday, Aug. 5, at SMCI. He was sentenced to life on Sept. 27, 1999, for a murder in Jones County.
Willie Hollinghead, 36, died at SMCI on Saturday, Aug. 4. He was sentenced to 10 years in Wayne County on Dec. 4, 2017, for sale of cocaine.
Charles R. McCullough died Saturday, Aug. 4, at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. He was serving 10 years for a burglary in Amite County and 10 years for an aggravated assault in Pike County.
The deaths are not related to an unsubstantiated claim that an inmate suffered fatal burns at SMCI, MDOC said.
Robin Fitzgerald, 228-896-2307, @robincrimenews
This story was originally published August 7, 2018 at 5:42 AM.