(AP) — A Mississippi inmate serving life sentences for convictions on sexual battery has died after being hospitalized since Feb. 27, the state Department of Corrections said Tuesday.
Huey Evans, 69, died Monday at the Merit Health River Region hospital in Vicksburg. The department said it waited a day to release information about his death so it could notify his family. Evans had been taken to the hospital from Central Mississippi Correctional Facility near Jackson.
The department said an autopsy would be done, and no foul play was suspected in the death.
Evans was convicted in Newton County of four counts of sexual battery and sentenced to serve two consecutive life sentences and two consecutive 20-year terms on Dec. 7, 2005. The Mississippi Court of Appeals upheld his conviction and sentences in 2007.
Evans was at least the 42nd inmate to die in a Mississippi prison since late December. The state prison system came under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department after several inmates were killed or injured during outbursts of violence in late December and early January.