Md. Inmate Gets 30 Years Added To His 60-Year Sentence For Cellmate's Murder
CUMBERLAND, Md. (AP) -- A Maryland prison inmate is getting 30 years added to his sentence for killing his cellmate at the maximum-security North Branch Correctional Institution near Cumberland.
Forty-four-year-old Vernon Lee Cowan was sentenced after pleading guilty Tuesday to second-degree murder in Allegany County Circuit Court. He had been charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of 51-year-old Ricky Bailey in February 2013.
Bailey died of blunt force injuries and wounds from a razor blade.
Prosecutors say Cowan killed Bailey because he wanted a single cell. The men had recently been assigned as cellmates.
Cowan had been serving a 60-year sentence for killing his girlfriend, Whitney Bass, in Waterbury, Conn., in 2008. He was transferred to Maryland under an interstate prisoner agreement.
Bailey was serving a life sentence for a Baltimore County rape.
(Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
