SRCI death ruled a homicide
Investigation into incident may take a long time
By JESSICA KELLER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Thursday, May 15, 2008 10:39 AM PDT
ONTARIO — Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris confirmed Wednesday the death of a Snake River Correctional Institute inmate early Monday morning was a homicide.
Norris said law enforcement authorities are also investigating a person of interest in connection to the crime at the prison.
Norris said the state medical examiner performed the autopsy Wednesday at the state medical examiner’s office in Clackamas.
The inmate, James Ivan Briggs, 61, was found dead early Monday morning. An inmate since early 2003, Briggs was convicted out of Coos County in late 2002 for sexual penetration, sodomy and sex abuse. He was not set to be released until 2026.
Norris said the state’s medical examiner listed Briggs’ death as a homicide by ligature strangulation.
“It appears it was a prison-issued belt,” Norris said of the tool used in the death.
Norris said, although authorities have a person of interest in mind, the suspect’s name will not be released until the investigation is concluded, but that will likely take some time.
“This is not probably going to go fast because the person of interest is not going anywhere, so we’re probably going to do the entire investigation before we go to grand jury, so it could take several months before the formal charging,” he said.
Norris said the Oregon State Police are spearheading the investigation with the assistance of the Malheur County Sheriff’s Office and the Ontario Police Department.
Norris said, based on preliminary witness statements, it appears the homicide was discovered fairly quickly at the prison. While he would only say Briggs’ was in “a contained-scene,” according to a press release from the Oregon State Police, Briggs was found deceased in his cell in Complex 1 at around 6:52 a.m.
