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Inmate implicates second convict in priest killing
From Jason Carroll
(CNN) -- Another inmate may have offered money to the convict who confessed to the Boston area prison cell killing of a defrocked Roman Catholic priest convicted as a pedophile, a prisoners' advocate assisting the investigation told CNN Tuesday. Joseph Druce, the alleged killer, told prosecutors he beat and then strangled John Geoghan Saturday after he jammed the former priest's cell door with a book, toothbrush and a nail clipper, authorities said. James Pingeon, litigation director for the prisoner advocacy group that had monitored conditions of Geoghan's incarceration and is assisting in the investigation of his death, said Druce, 37, told a fellow inmate that another prisoner, described as a powerful gang member, offered him money to kill the 68-year-old defrocked priest. The inmate informant -- identified as Robert Assan -- told Pingeon he warned prison guards that Druce decided to commit a crime in hopes it would prompt officials to transfer him to another facility. Assan claims the guards ignored the warning, Pingeon told CNN. Pingeon said an attorney for his organization, Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services, interviewed Assan Tuesday. He said Assan contacted the group Monday to tell his story. An official in the office of Worcester District Attorney John Conte said its investigators also want to interview Assan. On Monday, Conte said, "Druce appears to be the single defendant," but he added, "as to whether or not anyone else was involved and there was any intent we will certainly be looking into that." State officials said they would conduct two separate investigations into the weekend strangling death of Geoghan by Druce, who plotted for more than a month to kill the convicted pedophile and considered him "a prize." "Our system of justice is not and should not be a system of frontier justice," Conte told reporters in Worcester. DA: 'I would say that he's filled with longstanding hate'Saturday's killing at Souza-Baranowski Prison outside Boston has raised questions about why Geoghan, who was in protective custody at his own request, was housed a few cells away from Druce, serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for killing a gay man. Conte said Druce "has a longstanding phobia, it appears, towards homosexuals of any kind. I'm not a psychologist and I'm not a psychiatrist, but I would say that he's filled with longstanding hate." He said the killer meticulously planned the attack, working out details "for over a month." An autopsy by Boston's chief medical examiner ruled the cause of death to be ligature strangulation and blunt chest trauma -- broken ribs and a punctured lung -- "and the manner of death as a homicide," Conte said. Conte said his investigation would look into whether negligence or anyone else was involved. "Mr. Druce himself said he was the only one involved, but we're not taking that at face value." Senior CNN New York Producer Ronni Berke contributed to this report
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