Convicted murderer dies at Montana State Prison

DEER LODGE (AP) — An inmate serving a life sentence for deliberate homicide has died at the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge.

Prison spokeswoman Linda Moodry says inmate Cleveland Boyer was found in his cell in a high security housing unit Friday morning and died at the hospital just before 9 a.m. He was 23.

An autopsy is planned.

Boyer was given a life sentence in January for the shooting death of his former best friend, Daniel Valenzuela. Valenzuela was shot numerous times as he stood at a downtown Billings convenience store on March 13, 2011.

Boyer fled Billings after the shooting and was arrested in Bozeman the next day.

Valenzuela died five days after the shooting.