Shane Sloan was not on suicide watch when he hanged himself in his cell at the State Correctional Institution in Pittsburgh, a spokesperson for the prison said Monday.

Sloan was convicted late last month of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison for strangling his mother Feb. 5, 2001 in the Pine Township trailer they shared.

Sloan, 29, attacked his mother, Susan LaRue Fleeger, after she interrupted the second of his four suicide attempts on the day of the murder. Testimony from the trial also revealed that Sloan had tried to kill himself on at least two other occasions in the three months leading up to the murder.

Prison guards found Sloan hanging in his cell at 2:05 a.m. Monday, said Carol Scire, administrative assistant to the superintendent of the Pittsburgh prison, formerly known as Western Penitentiary.

Guards count heads eight times a day at the prison, or once every three hours, Ms. Scire said. She said guards reported that Sloan was sleeping at 11 p.m. Sunday, the last head count before Sloan was found dead in his cell.

Sloan had been at the state prison less than a week.

He was transferred there from Mercer County Jail last Tuesday, said Mercer County Jail Warden Jeff Gill. Mercer County District Attorney James P. Epstein added that the county transported Sloan's medical information packet to the Pittsburgh prison along with Sloan.

Sloan had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a manic-depressive disorder marked by emotional highs and lows, after his first suicide attempt on Oct. 26, 2000. Sloan denied that he had the disorder.

Ms. Scire said doctors for the Pittsburgh prison's hospital evaluate inmates as they arrive to determine whether special precautions need to be taken in order to prevent a suicide attempt. Based on the evaluation of Sloan and his medical records, doctors at the Pittsburgh prison apparently determined that Sloan did not need to be placed on suicide watch.

Ms. Scire said she did not know if doctors continued Sloan's prescriptions for anti-psychotic, anti-depressant and sedative drugs -- which he had taken while in Mercer County Jail, according to trial testimony -- and she added that those medical records likely would be confidential.

Chris St. John -- a Greenville attorney who represented Sloan on behalf of the Mercer County Public Defender's Office -- extended sympathies to the Sloan and Fleeger families and friends and commended jurors who heard the trying case last month, saying their verdict was carefully considered and had nothing to do with Sloan's suicide.

"Instead, Shane was a deeply troubled young man whose calm demeanor throughout the trial and his personality disorder, in retrospect, lead me to the conclusion that he planned to take his life regardless of the outcome of the trial because of his profound shame for what he had done to the person who supported him the most during his short life," St. John said.

"I am also sure that the Mercer County Jail took every precaution while Shane was lodged in our jail and that they notified Western Penitentiary of Shane's mental illness when he was transported there to begin his life sentence," St. John added.