Death Row Inmate Hanged Three Days Before Execution: Billy Slagle Not On Suicide Watch 25 Years After His Murder Of His Neighbor When He Stabbed Her Repeatedly With A Scissor

Death row inmate hanged three days before execution in Ohio was to take place, as Billy Slagle was found in his jail cell dead on Sunday.

The death row inmate hanged body was found at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution south of Columbus about 5 a.m., prison spokeswoman JoEllen Smith told the Los Angeles Times. He was declared dead at 6:11 a.m. Officials suspect suicide was caused the 44-year-old man to lose his life three days before his execution.

Slagle was set to be executed by lethal injection at 10 a.m. Wednesday. The death row inmate hanged wasn't placed on suicide watch like others are 72 hours before the scheduled execution.

Slagle had been in prison since 1988 for fatally stabbing his neighbor 17 times with a pair of scissors, according to the L.A. Times when he was 18-years-old.  He broke into Mari Anne Pope's Cleveland home and killed her. The day of the murder, Slagle had consumed "multiple cans of beer, several shots of bourbon and quite a few marijuana joints," he wrote in a recent letter to the Ohio parole board.

An Ohio jury convicted Slagle of aggravated murder, burglary and robbery, but acquitted him of attempted rape. Two children witnessed the murder take place.

Slagle's family and Cuyahoga County prosecutors recently urged Ohio Gov. John Kasich to commute Slagle's sentence to life in prison, saying that sentencing option was not available at his trial, according to the Times.

"I'm neither inherently evil nor a bad person, but rather I'm someone that has made a terrible mistake and wishes that I could take that night all back," Slagle wrote to the parole board. "... If giving my life would bring Ms. Pope back, then I would readily give it."