2 Mississippi inmates die in separate Jackson hospitals

JACKSON, Miss. (WXXV)- Two inmates from different Mississippi prisons have died in separate Jackson hospitals.

The Mississippi Department of Corrections says 66-year-old Charles Bates died Friday at Merit Health Central.

Just one day prior, 44-year-old Thaddeus Antwon Scales died Thursday night at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Bates was serving a 27-year sentence in Rankin County for child pornography and a sale of a controlled substance with an enhanced penalty in Marion County. Bates had been in prison since August of 2018 for the pornography crime and March of 2010 for the drug charge.

Scales was serving a 10-year sentence at the South Mississippi Correctional Institution in Greene County for second-degree murder. He was sentenced on May of 2019 in Marshall County.

An autopsy will determine the official cause of death.