Richard Steven Newman, 68, formerly of Parkesburg, was found unresponsive in his cell at SCI Camp Hill on Friday morning, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.
Prison staff immediately began life-saving measures before facility medical personnel and Lower Allen EMS continued advanced life support. Newman was pronounced dead at 8:55 a.m., officials said.
Newman had been in state Department of Corrections custody since August 2010. Lancaster County court records obtained by Daily Voice on Friday show he pleaded guilty but mentally ill to attempted homicide, burglary, and stalking in February 2010.
The charges stemmed from a February 2008 attack at his ex-wife's Warwick Township home, according to a LancasterOnline report published at the time.
Newman broke a basement window and entered the home around 2 a.m., the outlet reported, citing police. His ex-wife and her boyfriend were asleep and did not hear the break-in but awoke to creaking as Newman came upstairs.
When the boyfriend stepped into a hallway, Newman was waiting with a claw hammer and struck him eight times in the head, according to the report.
Despite his injuries, the man was able to restrain Newman while the woman called 911. The boyfriend required stitches, while Newman's ex-wife was not physically injured.
She had previously obtained a protection-from-abuse order barring Newman from contacting her, according to the report.
Court records show Newman received 493 days of credit for time served and was sentenced to 30 months to 20 years for burglary and 102 months to 20 years for attempted homicide, with those prison terms ordered to run consecutively.
He also received a consecutive one-to-four-year sentence for stalking.
Finally, he had a one to three year consecutive sentence from Chester County that was imposed after his Lancaster County sentencing and ran consecutively. It was a probation revocation – probably a resentencing following his conviction for the Lancaster County cases, the DOC confirmed to Daily Voice.
That produced an aggregate sentence of 13 to 47 years.
The court also ordered psychiatric and psychological evaluation and treatment, along with no contact with the victims or their family.
Newman later sought post-conviction relief and appealed. The Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the case in October 2014, court records show.
Pennsylvania State Police were notified of Newman's death and will investigate in accordance with state policy, the Department of Corrections said.
The Cumberland County Coroner's Office will determine his official cause and manner of death.
Newman's next of kin has been notified.
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