An inmate has been charged with first-degree murder after authorities say he used bed sheets to strangle his cellmate.
According to the affidavit, Javier Medina told guards at the South County Jail in Frostproof on Tuesday that he was battered by one of his roommates. Guards moved him to another cell and when they returned, authorities said they found inmate Joseph Dawes on the bottom bunk with a sheet wrapped around his neck.
He later died at the hospital.
Medina told Polk County sheriff's deputies he was set up and said the sheet was already hanging when he entered the cell. After authorities interviewed him, they said Medina put his head in the toilet and tried to drown himself, and also jumped and attempted to fall on his head.
Medina's charges were upgraded Friday after Dawes died.
