State agents are investigating the strangling death of an inmate in what sheriff's deputies said is the Cannon Detention Center's first reported case of assisted suicide at the jail.
Matthew Lee Glidden, 29, of Ladson was found dead in his cell around 6:45 a.m. March 24 while officers prepared the other inmates in his unit for breakfast, investigators said.
The State Law Enforcement Division announced on Thursday that Glidden had been strangled at the hand of fellow inmate, 30-year-old Michael Robert Bixby. Agents charged Bixby with assisted suicide, according to SLED spokesman Thom Berry. He could face up to 15 years in prison or a $100,000 fine if convicted on the felony charge, Berry said.
An arrest affidavit stated Bixby confessed to investigators that he helped Glidden die.
Berry would not elaborate on how investigators confirmed that Glidden had been suicidal.
