Penitentiary inmate's death thought suicide

[Informer]

McALESTER -- The Department of Corrections is investigating the death of an inmate who was found hanging in his cell at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

Prison spokeswoman Margaret Sexton said guards discovered Pedro Castillo, 49, about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday with a sheet wrapped around his neck and tied to the cell's window frame.

Sexton said Castillo did have a pulse when officers found him, and efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.

Sexton said the death appears to be a suicide but that the Medical Examiner's Office will make an official ruling.

She says Castillo, who was serving a Jackson County sentence for embezzlement of an automobile, was in a locked cell by himself in the prison's mental-health unit.