{"id":242802,"date":"2026-07-14T03:08:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T03:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/242802\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T03:08:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T03:08:16","slug":"convicted-child-molester-found-dead-in-pennsylvania-prison-cell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/242802\/","title":{"rendered":"Convicted child molester found dead in Pennsylvania prison cell"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">SOMERSET, Pa. (WTAJ) \u2014 A prisoner at SCI Laurel Highlands who was sentenced on charges involving the sexual assault of someone under 16 was found dead in his cell over the weekend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Joseph Warrne, 36, of Meadville, was found unresponsive in his cell Saturday, July 11, according to Superintendent M. Hainsworth. Prison staff and medical personnel responded and provided life-saving measures until EMS arrived. Warren was pronounced dead at 11:26 a.m.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Warren was serving a sentence of up to 12 and a half years after pleading guilty in 2017 to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated assault of someone under 16, and statutory sexual assault by someone 8-11 years older in Crawford County.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Hainsworth said Warren had been at SCI Laurel Highlands since March 13.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Pennsylvania State Police are investigating. The Somerset County Coroner&#8217;s Office will determine the cause of death.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTAJ | Your News Leader.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wtaj.com\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTAJ | Your News Leader.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOMERSET, Pa. (WTAJ) \u2014 A prisoner at SCI Laurel Highlands who was sentenced on charges involving the sexual&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[84877,28,30,29,1224,104118,104117,337],"class_list":["post-242802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-involuntary-deviate-sexual-intercourse","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-pennsylvania-state-police","tag-prison-staff","tag-sci-laurel-highlands","tag-sexual-assault"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}