Adam Peterson, the former UW-Madison student convicted of killing Joel Marino last year, committed suicide Jan. 10 while in prison, according to the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.
A DOC press release said Peterson's cellmate at the Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, Wis., awoke to find the 20-year-old hanging from his bunk bed by a sheet. The cellmate notified staff, who performed emergency measures until paramedics arrived, but Peterson was pronounced dead at 10:21 p.m.
On Sept. 25, Peterson attempted to take his own life in the Dane County Jail by trying to hang himself with a pair of jail-issued uniform pants in the shower. The Dane County Sheriff's Department said a deputy was able to save Peterson after another inmate alerted staff to the situation. Peterson was conscious and alert at the time of rescue.
After the incident, Peterson was housed in segregation and placed under suicide watch at the jail. He was moved to the general population of the Dodge Correctional Institution after pleading guilty to first-degree intentional homicide on Dec. 8 in the stabbing death of 31-year-old Marino. Peterson was given a mandatory life sentence but was awaiting a final sentencing hearing to determine if he would be eligible for release after serving 40 years behind bars at the state's recommendation.
At the time of his death, Peterson was not on suicide watch. Wisconsin DOC public information director John Dipko said the Dodge County Sheriff's Department is continuing to investigate Peterson's death.
According to Peterson's attorney, public defender Dennis Burke, Peterson suffered from mental illness and was taking several prescribed medications for schizophrenia and psychosis. Burke said his client's condition seemed to have been improving since his move from jail to prison.
By all indications [he] was getting better,"" Burke said. ""In retrospect I'm thinking that that was all just a smokescreen.""
Burke said Peterson's family was notified of the suicide by prison personnel a short time after it occurred and said they are ""devastated"" by the death.
Police arrested Peterson, a Stillwater, Minn., native, in June after DNA evidence on a knife, hat and backpack found at the scene of Marino's murder linked him to the killing.
Peterson had attended UW-La Crosse before transferring to UW-Madison in fall 2007, but he then dropped out in October.
