Ricky Dubose, who was sentenced to death last week in Putnam County Superior Court, hanged himself today on death row.
"I confirmed it with DOC (Georgia Department of Corrections) personnel that he committed suicide," Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said Sunday evening.
Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale said he was notified by the state around 5:30 p.m. He said the Region 6 office of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is heading up the investigation of Dubose's death at the prison, and they were en route to the Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson with the crime scene unit.
Sills said he has had inmates commit suicide in the past, so he was no stranger to it happening.
"I can be done just as quick as he murdered (Curtis) Billue and (Rick) Monica; it doesn't take long to hang oneself. It can be done in a matter of seconds," he said.
Dubose was sentenced to death by a jury from Glynn County and taken by Sills and other officers to death row in the Jackson state prison Thursday, June 16.
"I was surprised (to learn of the suicide) considering his young age and how many years it was going to take before he'd be executed," Sills said. "It's not good; it's not bad. But at least the state won't have to keep up with all the appeals and things associated with the appeals."
See the June 30 edition of The Eatonton Messenger for more on this story.