GRADY -- An inmate at the Varner Supermax Unit serving a sentence of life without parole for capital murder died Monday morning, Arkansas Department of Correction authorities said.
Prison staff found Rodney Weston, 36, unconscious in his cell at 8 a.m. Monday, department spokesman Solomon Graves said in a news release. Officers began emergency medical treatment, but Weston was pronounced dead at the unit.
Graves did not say how Weston died.
Arkansas State Police was notified and will conduct an investigation into the death, Graves said in the release.
Weston was convicted of capital murder, committing a terroristic act and first-degree battery in Chicot County in 2005 and incarcerated at Varner on Feb. 14, 2005. Weston was charged in the fatal shooting of Vincent Thomas at the Blue Front Tavern, a bar in Eudora.
Police said Weston entered the bar with his cousin, Derrick Weston, on April 24, 2004. Thomas was watching television in the bar with his father and the bar's owner, James Thomas. Vincent Thomas asked Weston to leave. He began to leave, then turned around and threw beer in Vincent Thomas' face and shot him three times, police said.
Thomas was killed and a customer, James Collins, was struck by gunfire.
According to Department of Correction records, Weston was cited for failing to obey orders July 14, 2015, and being insolent to staff members and making unnecessary noise July 14, 2015, and July 27, 2015.
He was sentenced to life in prison for the terroristic act and 20 years for first-degree battery.
State Desk on 10/25/2016