Thursday March 28th, 2024 7:56AM

Convicted murderer from Hall County victim of apparent suicide

By The Associated Press

REIDSVILLE, Ga. (AP) — State corrections officials say they're investigating the apparent suicide of a convicted murderer from Hall County at the state prison in Reidsville.

The Department of Corrections said in a news release that prison guards found Hugo Tepanca unresponsive in his cell at around 4:25 a.m. Tuesday. The agency said prison medical staff performed CPR, and the prison medical director pronounced Tepanca dead around 4:45 a.m.

Tepanca was serving a life sentence for a murder in the death of Jose Vargas, 22, who was shot and killed at a house on Merck Street in Gainesville in April 2008.  Tepanca was 29 at the time.

Hall County authorities said at the time of the shooting that it followed an earlier altercation between the two men.

(AccessWDUN's Ken Stanford contributed to this story.)

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