An inmate at the U.S. Penitentiary at Hazelton on Tuesday was indicted on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of a fellow prisoner.
Marricco Sykes, 36, is alleged to have strangled another man during an altercation late last year, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney William Ihlenfeld of West Virginia's Northern District.
Sykes was sentenced in 1998 when he was 18 years old to spend 220 months in prison for carrying a firearm during two robberies in Tulsa, Oklahoma, according to a report at the time from Tulsa World news. Sykes was due to be released March 14, according to the Bureau of Prisons website.
The newspaper reported that the judge had been told Sykes was an "'aggressive' prisoner while awaiting sentencing," the article states, adding that during one of the robberies Sykes might have attempted to shoot a gas station employee.
An indictment is not a finding of fact. It means only that grand jurors believed enough evidence exists to warrant a jury trial.
The murder charge carries the possibility of the death penalty in federal court.