DEATH OF PRISONER BEING INVESTIGATED CELLMATE SUSPECT IN SLAYING OF MAN WHO KILLED HIS DAUGHTER, GRANDSON.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- Sheriff's homicide detectives are investigating the death of a 65-year-old prison inmate who died two weeks after he was assaulted in his cell.

Claude Wright, a former Sylmar resident, was serving a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole in California State Prison-Los Angeles County for the 2001 murders of his daughter and grandson.

His cellmate, also a convicted murder, is considered a suspect, although he has not been charged with the crime, prison officials said.

``The suspect at this time is the cellmate. He has been placed in an administrative segregation unit,'' prison spokesman Lt. Ken Lewis said.

Wright died Oct. 5. Coroner's officials said the cause of death has not been determined, pending further tests.

The initial mode of death was classified as a homicide, coroner's officials said.

Los Angeles County sheriff's homicide Detective Boyd Zumwalt declined to comment on the case, saying only, ``We have a suspect.''

Wright came to the Lancaster prison in 2003.

In 2001, he shot to death his 19-year-old daughter and 8-year-old grandson at the family's Sylmar home, then shot himself, but survived his wound. Authorities said Wright said he was tired of them living with him and his wife and wanted them out of the home.

The 44-year-old cellmate was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder in San Diego County. He came to the Lancaster prison in March. Even without a new charge in Wright's slaying, the earliest he would be considered for parole is 2091, Lewis said.

The assault occurred Sept. 22 in the cell shared by Wright and the other inmate, Lewis said.

With Wright's death, there have been 10 inmate deaths at the Lancaster prison in 2006, Lewis said.

Wright's death would be at least the prison's fourth homicide this year. In each case, the men were killed while alone in their cells with their cellmates, all of whom were already serving long sentences.

Convicted arsonist and child molester Robert Painter, 59, was found beaten to death Jan. 2 in his cell in the prison ``special needs'' section set aside for inmates who might be in danger from other prisoners.

On Jan.24, convicted murderer Richard Ponton, 36, was found with his throat cut, his body wrapped in a sheet under his bed.

He lived in the same ``special needs'' section.

Burglar Scott Manning, 47, was strangled March 7 in his cell.

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com

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