Maryland correctional authorities are investigating the death Monday night of a Baltimore City Detention Center inmate as a homicide, a prison spokesman said.

Correctional officers found Xavier A. Tilghman, 21, lying in grave condition about 7:20 p.m. in his cell. Paramedics took him to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he died Tuesday, according to Mark Vernarelli, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

Vernarelli said that investigators in the public safety department's internal investigative unit are handling the case as an apparent homicide. Autopsy results are pending.

Tilghman, who lived in the 900 block of N. Bentalou St. in West Baltimore, had been serving a nine-month sentence for carrying concealed dangerous weapons, court records show.

Tilghman's cellmate was with him in the cell when he was discovered. Vernarelli said it was too early to say whether the cellmate was a suspect in the investigation.