Convicted killer hangs himself in Florence cell

In life, Michael Gaston was a killer. In death, he vowed to be the same.

State overturns prison workers' penalties

Wrongful death suit filed in prison attack

Warden out in prison death

Cellmate charged in slaying

At the center of a major scandal involving murder and the punishments of several workers at the state prison complex in Florence, Gaston, a convicted killer, hanged himself with a bedsheet Monday while alone in his cell, officials said Tuesday.

In a suicide note officers found near his body, Gaston railed against the prison system that had held him since March 2006 and vowed to get revenge in the afterlife.

“A man has no right over another. The only way that he gains right over another is if he takes it by force,” Gaston wrote, according to text of the note released by the Arizona Department of Corrections.

“I will meet you in the venomous rivers of hell and greet you with violence unknown to man,” he wrote.

The note was not addressed to anyone in particular, corrections spokesman Nolberto Machiche said.

The 22-year-old Gaston was already serving life in prison for murdering a friend in the desert near Wickenburg in 2004.

Then, in September 2006, a nonviolent inmate, William Harris, was mistakenly classified as violent and put in a cell with Gaston.

Within an hour, Gaston stabbed Harris to death with a metal shank he’d sneaked in.

An investigation into the death led to a dozen prison workers, including the warden, being fired, forced to resign or otherwise punished. Two of the punishments were later overturned by the state.

Gaston had been awaiting trial in Pinal County Superior Court in Harris’ slaying. Harris’ family has a lawsuit pending against the state.

Though he had showed no signs of being suicidal, Gaston somehow managed between security checks at 12:18 a.m. and 1:18 a.m. Monday to fashion a sheet into a noose and hang himself, Machiche said.

He had not been on suicide watch.

“Every time there is some kind of sign or some kind of diagnosis that an inmate is attempting or contemplating, we always put him on suicide watch,” Machiche said. Such a watch would usually involve more frequent security checks on the inmate, he said.

Workers who found Gaston at 1:18 a.m. tried to resuscitate him and called medical staff, Machiche said.

No one was able to revive him, and he was pronounced dead at 2:01 a.m.

Prison officials have already begun an investigation into the death and will check to see if any foul play was involved.

“Even though this is an apparent suicide, there’s always an investigation that is attached to inmate deaths,” Machiche said.

Neither Gaston’s nor Harris’ family members could be reached for comment.