Bensalem Man Found Dead In Montco Prison Cell

LOWER BUCKS COUNTY, PA —A Bensalem Township man serving a lengthy sentence for aggravated assault was found dead in his cell at SCI Phoenix in Montgomery County Monday morning, prison officials said.

Martin Andrew McLoughlin III, 33, was pronounced dead at 6:22 a.m. Monday. His cause of death is unclear, prison officials said.

McLoughlin was sentenced in August 2019 to spend up to 22 years in state prison after he stabbed and beat another inmate at Bucks County Prison. He pleaded guilty to using a shank made of sharpened wood to attack his fellow inmate.

Authorities said McLoughlin used the shank to strike the other inmate several times in the head, neck, upper back, and side. The attack was recorded by security cameras at Bucks County Correctional Facility in the inmate dining room.

On Monday, prison staff provided life-saving measures until facility medical personnel arrived at the cell, SCI Phoenix Superintendent Joseph Terra said in a statement, but their efforts were futile.

Pennsylvania State Police are investigating the incident. The Montgomery County Coroner's Office is performing an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

McLoughlin was in the first year of an eight to 22 year sentence after stabbing and beating a fellow inmate at Bucks County Correctional Facility in 2019.

McLoughlin told investigators he'd been planning for several days to "reprimand" the man he stabbed and he chose Oct. 9 because he thought he was being transferred to state prison later that morning.

He was originally jailed for nonviolent crimes including burglary, criminal trespass, and fleeing police.