Prisoner dies in fight with others at Scotland County correctional facility

The State Bureau of Investigation and the Division of Prisons is conducting an investigation after a prisoner at the Scotland Correctional Institution died after a fight with other prisoners.

Officials said Mario S. Organistas was stabbed to death with a homemade weapon after he and five other offenders entered another cell around 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, apparently as part of a dispute. A second offender in that group of six to enter the cell was injured and taken to the hospital as was the person who was attacked.

Prison medical staff and local EMS responded, and the Scotland County Sheriff’s Department was notified. The prison was also placed on lockdown.

Organistas, 37, was pronounced dead by the county medical examiner’s office. He was a close-custody offender serving a 28-year sentence for second-degree murder. He was admitted to prison in 2010 after being convicted in Union County.