Police are investigating the second homicide at the Clifton T. Perkins state psychiatric hospital in a week and the third to occur at the Jessup facility in the past 13 months.
Andre Mayo, 46, has been charged with one count of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder, according to online court records. He is accused of killing Rogelio Mondragon, 40.
Both were patients at the hospital, according to the Maryland State Police, which is investigating the case. Mondragon was committed after facing charges of second-degree rape, according to online records.
Police say hospital staff were conducting their rounds at about 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 27, when they saw Mondragon lying unresponsive on the floor. Hospital staff and paramedics were unable to resuscitate him, and he was pronounced dead.
Mayo later approached a hospital security guard "and provided information" about the victim, police said. Surveillance footage showed Mayo entering Mondragon's room twice within a half-hour. Mondragon was the only person in the room when Mayo entered.
Evidence on Mondragon's hands and face suggest that he might have been in a fight, police said.
The case remains under investigation. Police said they do not have a motive for the homicide and are awaiting the results of an autopsy to learn more about how Mondragon died
Mondragon's death comes six days after David Rico-Noyola, 22, was killed in the hospital's maximum-security wing. His roommate, Vitali Davydov, 24, has been charged with one count of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder, according to online records.
Davydov pleaded guilty in 2007 to killing a Montgomery County psychologist in 2006 but was found to be not criminally responsible, according to The Washington Post. Rico-Noyola faced charges in the slaying of his mother three years ago in Anne Arundel County, according to the Baltimore Sun. He had been scheduled to appear in court in November for a competency hearing.
Susan Sachs, a 45-year-old inmate at the medical center, was killed in September 2010. El Soundani Elwahhabi, 51, was accused of using a piece of string to strangle Sachs and charged with one count of first-degree murder. His trial was slated to begin in October, but Elwahhabi was hospitalized, postponing his court date to February 2012.
Both lived in the same wing of the mental hospital, had psychiatric disorders and had been convicted of murder.