LEBANON, Ohio – Authorities are calling an inmate’s death in Warren County Tuesday a homicide.
Luther Wade, 26, was injured during a fight just before 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Lebanon Correctional Institution, authorities said. He was taken to Atrium Medical Center where doctors pronounced him dead.
Wade was admitted March 30, 2015, for aggravated burglary. He was serving 10 years, according to prison records.
The Ohio Highway Patrol has since started a homicide investigation involving inmates at the facility. An autopsy in the case is scheduled for Wednesday.
This is not the first time inmates at the facility have gotten into trouble while incarcerated.
Eleven Lebanon Correctional Institution inmates with ties to gang members wereindicted in Januaryfor their roles in a large prison fight, authorities said.
The inmates were in the dayroom area of their cell block on July 22, 2015 when they began fighting over the use of telephones, investigators said.
The fight at the facility -- in Turtlecreek Township near Lebanon -- escalated and involved several members from the Aryan Brotherhood and the Cincinnati Wild Boys, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Violence in Ohio prisons declined by nearly 12 percent from its peak in 2011 but Lebanon Correctional Institution had the highest number of violent incidents — 2,595 over a three-year period, according to the Dayton Daily News.
All told, between 2012 and 2014, there were 31,231 violent incidents reported in Ohio prisons.
The Journal-News contributed to this report.
