Child killer serving life sentence in Idaho prison dies by apparent suicide, IDOC says

A man who was serving a triple life sentence for killing his three children died by an apparent suicide, prison officials reported Sunday.

Jim Junior Nice, 46, was also a suspect in his cellmate’s death last year.

Nice was declared dead at 1:50 p.m. at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution from what appear to be self-inflicted wounds, according to a press release from the Idaho Department of Correction.

In September of 2017, Nice was suspected of killing his cellmate, 52-year-old Glenn Cox, when they were being housed at Idaho State Correctional Institution. At the time, IDOC reported that Cox and Nice were the only two people in the cell when Cox was assaulted.

The Ada County Sheriff’s Office was assigned to investigate Cox’s death, but IDOC named Nice as a suspect.

Cox was serving time for two felony driving-under-the-influence convictions and would have completed his sentence in 2022.

“Our detectives were very close to finishing their investigation into the death of Glenn Cox but were not finished when Nice died over the weekend,” said Ada County Sheriff’s spokesman Patrick Orr on Monday. “There was certainly evidence of a crime but the actual charging decision would have been made by Ada County prosecutors after they read our finished report.”

Nice was the only suspect in Cox’s death.

After Cox’s death, Nice was moved from the the Idaho State Correctional Institution to the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, prison officials reported in 2017.

“Per IDOC policy regarding unattended inmate deaths in the South Boise Correctional Complex, IDOC has asked the Ada County Sheriff’s Office to investigate the circumstances surrounding Nice’s death,” according to the department’s press release on Sunday.

This story was originally published December 10, 2018 at 7:03 AM.