ONTARIO (AP) — The Oregon medical examiner has determined a former Coquille man who was jail in a state prison in Ontario was murdered.

Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris said the state medical examiner found that 61-year-old James Ivan Briggs had been strangled with a belt Monday at the Snake River Correctional Institution. Briggs was found dead in his cell at 6:52 a.m. that day.

He had been an inmate at the prison since early 2003, following his conviction in Coos County in late 2002 on two counts of first-degree sodomy, two counts of first-degree sexual abuse and two counts of unlawful sexual penetration. He was not set to be released until 2026.

Police apparently have a homicide suspect. Norris said the name of the suspect will not be released until the investigation is concluded, which could take several months.

Briggs’ death follows the death on April 25 of inmate Dannie Ray Peck, 42, who was found dead in his cell. At the time, an OSP press release said investigators believed the former Coos Bay man died by suicide, but they did not indicate how. Peck was sentenced to life in prison on Aug. 23, 2006, after pleading guilty to the murder of a Hauser man, whom Peck assaulted and kidnapped outside the Wagon Wheel Grocery Store in Hauser on Oct. 4, 2005.