LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska prison officials say a man who spent decades in prison for brutally killing an 8-year-old boy nearly 50 years ago has died in prison.
The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services says in a news release that 64-year-old Patrick Russell died Sunday at the the Lincoln Correctional Center where he was serving a more than 100-year sentence for the 1973 killing of Joseph Matthew Edmonds.
Officials have said Russell was a teenager on probation for the sexual assault of a 7-year-old boy when he lured 8-year-old Joseph to a vacant apartment and strangled the boy with a telephone cord.
Prosecutors at the time said they believed he molested the boy after killing him.