PRISON FATALITY

Inmate pleads not guilty in strangulation, assault

8/8/2013

A former inmate at Toledo Correctional Institution who was charged in a fellow inmate’s death entered not guilty pleas Wednesday in Lucas County Common Pleas Court.

Dustin Lynch, 26, was ordered held in the Lucas County jail in lieu of $1 million bond by Judge Gary Cook, although Lynch currently is serving 20 years to life at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown for the 2002 murder of a Medina County girl.

Lynch is charged with two counts of aggravated murder in the March 17 strangulation of Arturo Lopez, 43, and one count of felonious assault for a March 10 attack on inmate Christopher Trent, 40.