“Once the paper was taken down off the wall, we observed how large the hole was. The hole was between cell 2R5 and 2R4, and was big enough for a person to fit through,” investigators wrote.
RELATED: Inmate avoids potential death penalty in cellmate’s murder
Pigge, who was serving time for murdering his girlfriend’s mother, attacked his cellmate, Luther Wade, of Springfield, on Feb. 23, 2016. He told authorities that he tricked Wade into wearing a blindfold as part of a card game and then used the wall cinder block to beat Wade to death. The two had been cellmates for less than two days.
Nearly a year later, appearing in court wrapped in a straitjacket, Pigge agreed to plead guilty to Wade’s murder and accept a sentence of life in prison without parole. Then on Feb. 1, 2017, Pigge sat in the very back of a prison bus driving between Columbus and Lucasville, out of sight of three state corrections officers sitting up front.
Other inmates on the bus told state troopers that Pigge removed his belly chain and used it to strangle and beat another inmate to death. The guards on the bus told troopers that they didn’t hear or see a thing. Pigge is pleading not guilty to murder charges in that attack.
RELATED: Prison guards didn’t know inmate on bus was being murdered
The Ohio Highway Patrol this month released its investigation report of the Wade murder in response to a public records request by this newspaper.
Inmates on R-block at Lebanon Correctional Institution are on lock down 23 hours a day. But one corrections officer told troopers that the hole in Pigge’s wall wasn’t the only one.
Corrections Officer Douglas Hunt told investigators that inmates in three other cells had been scraping at the walls and on the first floor. Officers found enough blocks removed to allow inmates to go from cell to cell.
“Hunt said inmates would break the blocks up and throw them out the window. Hunt explained inmates would cover the hole up with sheets hanging off their hand-made clothes lines,” the patrol report said.
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The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said Lebanon Correctional installed steel plating on cell walls after the Wade murder.
“Additionally, cell inspections continue to be prioritized around the state,” said DRC spokesman Grant Doepel.
The state patrol report on Wade’s murder includes mental health assessments that said he suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and intermittent explosive disorder, was prone to self-harm in the past, and presents “as a psychopath with strong narcissistic tendencies.” A prison psychiatrist reported after the Wade murder that Pigge denied any desire to be a serial killer but could not promise that he would not kill again.”
Pigge told state troopers that he didn’t know how he turned out to be the way he is.
“Pigge said he always grew up wanting to be a good person and to help people. He said he turned around and ended up killing people. He said he wasn’t sure where he went wrong in life,” the investigative report said.
He is now being held in a single man cell at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville.
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IN-DEPTH COVERAGE
We used a public records request to bring you more information about issues within Ohio’s prison system and the investigation into the murder of Luther Wade, of Springfield, committed by convicted murderer Casey Pigge.
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