A man convicted of beating his 89-year-old grandmother to death was one of two William Donaldson Correctional Facility inmates to recently die in custody.
Kenneth Ray Daniels, who was serving a life sentence for capital murder, was taken to UAB Hospital on Wednesday, April 8, for further treatment of complications due to a serious health issue. Daniels died at the hospital around 1:00 p.m. on April 9, according to the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office.
Daniels was serving a life sentence for the August 5, 2009, murder of his grandmother, Dorothy Allison. The victim’s body was found that night in her Pleasant Grove home after a relative asked police to check on her. After receiving no response at the door, officers looked through the windows and saw that “something bad had happened to her.” Allison was found dead in her recliner.
Police at the time said Daniels, then 38, beat the elderly woman to death with his fists, robbed her, and then burglarized her home. Daniels was captured after he returned to Allison’s home early the next morning. He tried to evade police in his grandmother’s Ford Taurus but wrecked the car on Highway 31 in the Warrior area. Daniels fled the crash scene on foot, but officers captured him. He was convicted in 2011.
Another inmate, 59-year-old Lorenzo Smith, died April 6 at the prison. Smith was serving a life sentence for a 2002 capital murder conviction in Montgomery County. Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates said Smith experienced a medical event inside his shared cell and later became unresponsive while receiving treatment in the infirmary. His cellmate witnessed the medical event. Smith was pronounced dead in the infirmary, and there was no evidence of foul play.
