Convicted murderer suspected of killing at Texas prison

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A Missouri man convicted of murdering a bank president and dumping his body in an Oklahoma lake in 1989 is now suspected of beating an inmate to death in a Texas prison last week.

Shannon Wayne Agofsky, 30, is already serving life sentences for robbing a Noel, Mo., bank and murdering its president, Dan Short.

He could face the death penalty if he is charged in the Jan. 5 death of inmate Luther Plant, of Orange, Texas.

FBI agent Robert Loosle confirmed that Agofsky is a suspect in Plant's death in a federal prison in Beaumont, Texas.

Plant was in his eighth year of a 15-year term for arson and firearms violations related to the 1987 burning of a Texas nightclub.

Plant, 37, was beaten, kicked and stomped to death in a recreation area of the prison, authorities said.

The FBI has interviewed 30 witnesses in connection with Plant's death and is waiting for laboratory results from a blood examination, which will be given to federal prosecutors.

Plant's death marks the fourth murder at the Federal Correction Complex in Beaumont since March 1997.

Agofsky and his brother, Joseph, were convicted in federal court in Missouri of conspiracy, armed bank robbery and using a firearm to rob the State Bank of Noel on Oct. 6, 1989.

They both received life sentences.

The brothers then were charged with first-degree murder in Oklahoma in connection with the drowning of the bank's president, Dan Short, whose body was found five days after the robbery in Grand Lake near Grove.

Authorities said the Agofskys kidnapped Short from his rural Benton County, Ark., home, drove him to the bank and forced him to open the vault.

About $71,000 was taken from the bank.

Shannon Agofsky was convicted of murder, but Joseph's trial ended in a mistrial.