A prisoner at the Utah State Prison in Draper has been charged with homicide in connection with strangling his cellmate with a laundry bag tie last month.
Athian Kout Mawien, 29, is charged in 3rd District Court with first-degree felony aggravated murder for the Nov. 22 slaying of 47-year-old Mark Helms. The crime is potentially punishable by death if Mawien is convicted.
The two argued earlier that day and the fight escalated into Mawien punching Helms and then choking him, the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office said last week.
Prosecutors charged Mawien -- who currently is serving a prison sentence for sex crimes -- on Wednesday. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance Dec.15 before Judge Terry Christiansen in West Jordan.
Sheriff's Lt. Don Hutson said the cell the men shared was locked during the fight. Other prisoners reported hearing the fight, but when guards arrived, Helms was dead, Hutson said. Investigators interviewed guards, other inmates and Mawien.
Investigators couldn't pinpoint an exact disagreement between the men that led to the fatal beating, Hutson said. The men had been cellmates since Nov.6.
Mawien pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted aggravated sex assault and one count of forcible sex abuse in October 2004. He was sentenced to seven years to life in prison and was denied parole during a December 2007 hearing. He is originally from Sudan.
Helms was in prison on child sex abuse charges. He admitted to having sex with boys during get-togethers at his home in 1998 where he also videotaped sex acts and showed pornographic movies.
A judge sentenced Helms to serve six years to life in prison in 2000, after Helms pleaded guilty to filming himself having sex with five boys ages 12 to 14. Helms parole date was set for April 2010, according to the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.
Mawien is awaiting court proceedings on the new murder charge in the Salt Lake County jail.
