43-year-old Dwight Darnell Bowen has entered a plea of not guilty in the killing of his cellmate in January at SCI Pine Grove in White Township.
Bowen made the plea on Friday in a video arraignment before Indiana County President Judge William Martin. Bowen was moved to SCI Houtzdale after the death of 32-year-old Luis Antonio Santiago on New Year’s Day.
Bowen called for prison guards to come to the cell he and Santiago shared shortly after 10 PM that night. They found Bowen standing at his cell window and Santiago lying unresponsive on the floor. Santaigo was later pronounced dead at the Indiana Regional Medical Center, and an autopsy the next day established the cause of death as asphyxia due to venous obstruction. DNA tests confirmed Santiago’s blood on multiple items in the cell and a match of Bowen’s blood profile on a cabinet.
Bowen is already serving life in prison for the 2001 murders of two toddlers in a firebombing at a rowhouse in Philadelphia. The next listed court action is Criminal Call on February 7th.
