MOUNDSVILLE, W.Va. — An inmate at the Northern Correctional Center in Moundsville murdered his cellmate, according to charges filed Tuesday by state police troopers.
Jonathan Jordan, 32, was charged in the early-October strangulation death of David Simpkins, 37.
Simpkins’ body was found Oct. 9. It initially looked like a suicide, state police spokesman Lt. Michael Baylous said.
“The victim was found with a belt around his neck in his cell. Anyone who initially came upon such a scene that’s probably the first thing that would enter their mind,” Baylous said.
Trooper First Class D.M. Matthews began an investigation and uncovered enough evidence to charge Jordan with murder, Baylous said.
“They don’t go into it with their mind made up to what happened. They try to keep an open mind and let the evidence develop and put the pieces of the puzzle together to determine what happened,” Baylous said.
Reports indicate Jordan choked Simpkins and then used the belt to strangle him. He was allegedly upset with him for not sticking up for himself in the jail.
The two were inmates at the state Division of Corrections-operated Northern Correctional Facility which is adjacent to the Northern Regional Jail. They were not regional jail inmates.
Jordan was arraigned Tuesday in Marshall County Magistrate Court.