Authorities are investigating after an inmate serving a 60-year sentence for the murder of a pregnant woman died in prison Monday morning, according to the Department of Correction.
Robert Courchesne, 57, collapsed at the Garner Correctional Center in Newtown around 10:30 a.m. Monday. He was rushed to Danbury Hospital and pronounced dead less than an hour later, the DOC said.
Courchesne was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to death for the deadly stabbing of a pregnant woman in 1998. Antonia Rodgers' baby was delivered prematurely in an emergency Cesarean and died 42 days later, when Rodgers was taken off life support, according to the DOC.
Courchesne was granted a new trial in 2010 and was spared the death penalty, sentenced instead to 60 years behind bars on a murder conviction.
The DOC and Connecticut State Police are investigating Courchesne's death, although no foul play is suspected.
