Philly inmate charged with killing cellmate

An inmate has been charged with the murder of his cellmate, whose unconscious body was found Tuesday morning in their locked cell at the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center.

Darryl Warthen, 52, was discovered around 7 a.m. by correctional officers. He was pronounced at 7:25, and a prison spokesperson said Warthen died of blunt force trauma to the head.

Police later charged Sylvester Smith, 46, with murder. Smith, who has an arrest record dating to 1993, was awaiting trial on an aggravated assault charge from December.

Warthen had been jailed since last August with a pending mental-heath status hearing in two cases - a 2004 criminal trespass and 2012 robbery, according to court records.

The prison, located in the city's Holmesburg neighborhood, held 970 adults and 38 juvenile males as of Thursday afternoon, the spokesperson said. - Matt Gelb