Second inmate in two days found dead at Ely prison

CARSON CITY -- An Ely State Prison inmate was pronounced dead after guards found him hanging in his single-man cell Friday, a day after a death row convict at the maximum-security prison was found dead in his cell.

Corrections Department spokesman Greg Smith said John Gray, 49, serving multiple 10-year terms for robbery with a deadly weapon in the Las Vegas area, used shoestrings to form a noose and hang himself. A coroner declared the death a suicide.

Smith said there was believed to be no connection with the death of Daniel Jones, 47, a condemned inmate whose body was found in his locked, one-man cell on Thursday. In that case, prison officials said there was no sign of foul play. Autopsy results are pending.

Jones had been sentenced to die for killing a man in Las Vegas so he could steal his motorhome.

He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in the shooting death of Don Woody in July 1989. Jones was arrested in Iowa while driving Woody's motorhome.