Convicted murderer accused of killing cellmate in Eastern WA prison north of Tri-Cities

KENNEWICK – A 36-year-old Coyote Ridge inmate serving time for murder is accused of killing his cellmate early Tuesday.

Investigators believe Christopher D. Yacono was high when he attacked Justus Cyr, 41, inside the main building of Coyote Ridge Correction Center in Connell, Washington, Police Chief Chris Lee told the Tri-City Herald.

Investigators are still trying to determine what sparked the confrontation about 1:50 a.m. while the two men where locked in the cell. The men had recently been assigned to the same cell.

State Department of Corrections employees allegedly saw Yacono attacking Cyr with weapons he made from crafting scissors and a pen.

When officers stepped in, Yacono surrendered and began cooperating with the investigation, Lee said. No one else was hurt.

Franklin County Public Hospital District medics tried to save Cyr, but he died at the prison, Lee said.

Yacono is being held on investigation for the death. It’s unclear what charges he will face.

Both men were serving time for crimes outside the Tri-Cities region. Cyr was serving a nearly eight-year sentence for first-degree assault in Pierce County.

Yacono is serving a life term after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in Snohomish County Superior Court in 2019.

He stabbed a pregnant mother to death in a Montlake Terrace home in 2018, according to the Everett Herald.

He was sentenced under the state’s “three strikes” law, which says anyone guilty of three violent crimes will face an automatic life sentence without the possibility of release.