Wanted man dies days after suicide attempt

1-8-2008 Maryland:

A man recently featured on "America's Most Wanted" in connection to a brutal 1999 sex assault in Glen Burnie died in a Louisiana hospital Saturday, three days after officials said he attempted to hang himself in a jail cell.

Deputies found Ronald Lee Moore, 40, hanging from a vent about 4 p.m. Wednesday as they passed out dinner trays to inmates at Nelson Coleman Correctional Center in Hahnville, La.

Prison officials said Moore, of 3712 Lamberton Square in Silver Spring, used a nylon string from a laundry bag to hang himself from an air-conditioning duct above a toilet. He was not on suicide watch, and staff had no indication he was suicidal, officials said.

Moore, who was breathing when he was found, was taken to Ochsner Medical Center in Jefferson and was put on a respirator, said Capt. Patrick Yoes, a spokesman for the St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Department. He was pronounced dead at 1:01 a.m. Saturday, he said.

An officer in Louisiana arrested Moore on an Anne Arundel County warrant Christmas Eve in St. Charles Parish, about a month after he was accidentally released from a Maryland prison - even though a county Circuit Court judge two months ago ordered him held without bond.

Sgt. Sara Schriver, a county police spokesman, said she had expected Moore to be returned to Maryland "shortly." He was scheduled to go before a jury Feb. 5 for the Glen Burnie sexual-assault case, according to Circuit Court records.

Moore was charged with first- and second-degree sex offense, unnatural or perverted practice, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, possession of a deadly weapon, and first-degree burglary. The charges stem from an October 1999 sexual assault during a home invasion.

Police linked Moore to the incident in July 2006, after matching his DNA to semen left behind at the scene of the attack. State prison officials collected his DNA while he was serving time for a 2000 burglary conviction and put it into the FBI's Combined DNA Index.

According to charging documents, police said Moore broke into an apartment on Green Bud Lane at about 1:45 a.m. Oct. 23, 1999, and sexually assaulted a woman inside.

Police said he was wearing a mask and gloves when he entered the apartment. Police said he punched the woman in the head several times during the assault and shocked her with a cattle prod. ..more.. by HEATHER RAWLYK, Staff Writer