RICHLAND COUNTY, S.C. — A South Carolina prison inmate has been charged with murder in the 2023 death of another inmate.
According to the South Carolina Department of Corrections, 40-year-old Marques Quantez Heath was charged with murder, possession of a weapon during a violent crime and possession of a weapon by an inmate in the death of Donnel Geoffrey Brown.
Warrants filed against Heath state that he stabbed Brown multiple times in the head, neck and chest with an improvised knife known as a shank while the two were secured in the same cell in the Monticello unit. The warrant states that Heath confessed to correctional staff, and video showed no other people entering or exiting the cell at the time.
Authorities said Brown was found unresponsive in his cell at the Broad River Correctional Institution on Nov. 7, 2023.
The S.C. Department of Correction said Heath was already serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for "numerous" drug and assault charges.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division's Crime Scene Unit assisted with the investigation, prison system officials said.