Strangled with a shoelace

Leron Morris, left, is suspected of killing Rashell Clarke Jr. on Feb. 6 at a state prison in Lancaster. (Handout / California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)

When Leron Morris summoned guards to his cell at a state prison in Lancaster, he showed them a gruesome, bloody scene and a lifeless body.

Morris and his cellmate, Rashell Clarke Jr., had a furious fight that ended only after Morris bit off part of the other man's ear and wrapped a shoelace around his neck, strangling him, according to investigative reports.

By the time guards began performing CPR on Clarke, his body was already showing signs of rigor mortis, suggesting he may have been dead for a while.

The details of the grisly Feb. 6 killing at the maximum-security Antelope Valley prison were revealed in an autopsy report issued to The Times this week by the Los Angeles County medical examiner-coroner's office in a public records request.

The slaying of Clarke, previously a resident of Shasta County, was the first of three suspected homicides this year at California State Prison-Los Angeles County, which houses about 3,300 to 3,500 inmates.

They are among 22 state prison inmate deaths in 2016 that officials are investigating as suspected homicides, according to Kristina Khokhobashvili, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Yet even for a seasoned homicide detective, the death of Clarke - who was serving a nearly 23-year prison sentence for abusing children - stands out for its brutality.

"It was extremely vicious and violent," Los Angeles County sheriff's Det. Frank Salerno said Wednesday. "Whatever dispute they had, it got real nasty."

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