Inmate Sentenced For Killing Prisoner

  STILLWATER (AP) - An inmate at a Minnesota maximum security prison has pleaded guilty to killing a fellow prisoner and has been sentenced to an additional 40 years behind bars.

Thirty-year-old Benjamin Beck entered the plea to second-degree intentional murder Monday in the death of Shane Cooper. The 30-year-old inmate was found strangled in his cell at Oak Park Heights on Dec. 2, 2013.

A criminal complaint says Beck took a shoelace from some tennis shoes, entered Cooper's cell and strangled him. The complaint says investigators found Beck's identification card in Cooper's room and used surveillance footage to verify Beck had entered the room before Cooper was killed.

Prosecutors say when Beck discovered that Cooper was a convicted child rapist, he told investigators he didn't have "a way out" and killed him.