Man Who Killed His Children Found Dead in Prison

The Maryland man who murdered his two young children during a trip to the Eastern Shore in 1999 was killed Saturday in prison, officials said.

Richard W. Spicknall II was found unconscious in a shower inside the maximum-security Jessup Correctional Institution about 7:40 p.m. Saturday, said Mark Vernarelli, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

Correctional officers used CPR in an attempt to revive Spicknall, 34, but were unsuccessful, Vernarelli said.

"This is being treated as a homicide," Vernarelli said. Detectives from the Maryland State Police and the internal investigative unit of the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services will conduct the probe, he said.

A spokeswoman for the state medical examiner's office said she could not comment on whether an autopsy has been performed or, if it had, on the result of such a procedure because of privacy issues and because the case is under investigation.

Sgt. Russell Newell, a state police spokesman, said, "At this point, we are conducting the initial steps of the investigation." Newell and Vernarelli said they could not comment on what trauma, if any, Spicknall's body sustained.

Vernarelli also said he could not comment on whether Spicknall had been in a protective custody unit because of his notoriety.

In September 1999, Spicknall picked up his two children -- Richie, 2, and Destiny, 3 -- from the Anne Arundel County home of his estranged wife, Lisa, who had a protective order against Richard.

Spicknall said he was taking the children to Ocean City. He fatally shot them near a bridge over the Choptank River on Maryland's Eastern Shore.

Spicknall initially blamed the killings on a carjacker, then admitted to them. In November 2000, in the middle of his trial, Spicknall pleaded guilty to the slayings and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

In January 2002, Spicknall mysteriously lapsed into a coma before regaining consciousness, state corrections officials said.

Lisa Spicknall now works as a domestic violence victim's advocate for the Prince George's County sheriff's office.

Sheriff's officials said yesterday that Lisa Spicknall was declining interview requests, but they released a brief statement from her: "It has been a very long and hard seven years. My family, friends and I are grateful that this chapter is finally over and there will be no further worry of future criminal proceedings.

"Although nothing will ever bring Destiny and Richie back to us we are now able to breathe a sigh of relief knowing that there can be a light at the end of the tunnel. There will never be closure in our lives but a weight has been lifted from our shoulders."