![Desperate hands reaching up in a prison cell. [Shutterstock - Bohbeh]](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/shutterstock_614405978-e1491750591109.jpg "Desperate hands reaching up in a prison cell. [Shutterstock - Bohbeh]")
Two convicted murderers have been charged with murder once again after strangling four of their fellow inmates in a South Carolina prison.
Jacob Philip and Denver Simmons were able to ensnare the four prisoners, two of which were also beaten and stabbed with a broken broomstick, by luring them into a cell, reports the Associated Press. Autopsies reveal that all four died of strangulation.
The two killers cooperated with one another, but there is no clear motive, according to arrest warrants released by State Law Enforcement Division.
Denver Simmons and Jacob Philip lured the men into their cell, possibly one after the otherhttps://t.co/4aUaW0AWOy
— Total Crime (@totalcrime) April 9, 2017
Although there is video footage of the violent attacks at the Kirkland Correctional Institution, authorities did not mention how long it took the two prisoners to kill the other four convicts. (RELATED: Murderer Who Took A Chainsaw To A Group Of Women Only Sentenced To 15 Years)
The men, who confessed their most recent crimes to investigators, are already serving life sentences.
Philip, 25, was arrested in 2013 for killing his girlfriend and her 8-year-old daughter. He was given life without parole after agreeing to a plea deal.
Simmons, 35, received two life sentences in 2010 for killing a mother and her 13-year-old son. (RELATED: More People Are Arrested For Marijuana Than All Violent Crimes Combined)
Kirkland Correctional Institution reportedly houses some of the most violent and dangerous prisoners in the state.
“Kirkland and Perry are on our radar. There have been instances at each of those prisons. We relate to staffing shortage and relate to them acting out by being locked up the majority of a 24-hour period,” said State Sen. Karl Allen, who is a member of South Carolina’s Corrections and Penology Committee, according to a local NBC affiliate.
“When they’re not rehabilitated, which is a responsibility of the staff and state of South Carolina, then they do what they know how to do which is act out, usually in a violent way.”
Of the four inmates who were killed, two were projected to be released in 2020, one was serving a life sentence for murder and first-degree burglary, and another was set to be freed in November.
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