An autopsy confirms that an inmate found unresponsive in his cell at Maury Correctional Institution was murdered.

Monday morning authorities discovered the body of Charles Branch in his cell. He died later at Pitt County Memorial Hospital.

The cause of death for Branch is asphyxia, due to strangulation, and a contributing factor was traumatic head injury. The autopsy lists his death as a homicide.

The 40-year-old had a lengthy prison record, dating back to 1988. Most recently he had been in the prison system since March 11th on an 8-year, 5-month sentence from Johnston County for habitual felon and assault with a deadly weapon on government officers.

The SBI was called in to investigate the death and so far no arrest have been made.

Previous Story

The SBI is investigating the apparent murder of an inmate at the Maury Correctional Institution in Greene County.

The SBI tells WITN News that Charles Branch died Monday. The 40-year-old had a lengthy prison record, dating back to 1988. Most recently he had been in the prison system since March 11th on an 8-year, 5-month sentence from Johnston County for habitual felon and assault with a deadly weapon on government officers.

The SBI says they were requested to investigate the death at the request of the Greene County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff Lemmie Smith says the first call came in at 5:00 a.m. Monday. Smith says the death is a homicide.

An autopsy on the inmate was completed Tuesday afternoon, but those results have not been released. The Department of Correction says Branch was found unresponsive in his cell. He later died at Pitt County Memorial Hospital. The D.O.C. says Branch was housed in a single-inmate cell at the prison.

The D.O.C. says the prison was under a modified lockdown, meaning inmates could only move from place to place only with staff escort.

Maury is a 1,000 cell, close security prison for adult males located near Hookerton. It opened in 2006 and was one of six new 1,000 cell prisons built before 2008.

Last month the administrator at the prison was reassigned after four correctional officers and an inmate were injured in a disturbance in one of the prison exercise yard. Darlyn White had been with the prison system since 1977.