Authorities said Thursday that they are investigating the death of an Arkansas inmate who was serving a life term for murder.
Robert Whitney’s cellmate told authorities shortly before 3 a.m. that the 52-year-old “appeared to be in distress,” according to a release from the state Department of Correction.
Officers found Whitney unresponsive, and he was pronounced dead at 3:10 a.m., the release states.
Whitney, an inmate at the Ouachita River Correctional Unit in Malvern, was sentenced to life in prison in 2005 for first-degree murder, according to the agency.
The Arkansas State Police and the department will investigate the death.