Jasper County convict charged with strangling cellmate to death in December incident
A Jasper County inmate was charged with murder following the death of his cellmate in an “apparent fight” late last year.
Javontay Savon Rogers, 31, is accused of using a nylon strap to strangle 34-year-old Patrick Massey to death Dec. 10 inside their shared cell at the Ridgeland Correctional Institution.
Rogers was serving a five-year sentence for assault and battery and pointing and presenting a firearm, according to a Thursday press release from the South Carolina Department of Corrections. Because that sentence recently ended, he was transferred last week to the Jasper County Detention Center, where he awaits trial on the murder charge.
Evidence used to charge Rogers included RCI incident reports, witness statements, surveillance footage, photographs of the scene and autopsy data, according to the arrest warrant.
Massey was born and raised in Greenville County, according to his obituary. He worked for a local landscaping company and was a member of South Union Baptist Church in Fairplay, South Carolina.
Massey had been incarcerated at various state prisons since January 2014 and was moved to RCI in July 2023 with a projected release date of May 21, 2026. His criminal convictions out of Greenville and Oconee counties included felony-level burglaries, drug charges, property damage and breaking into vehicles, according to SCDC records.
RCI is an all-male, medium security prison that holds about 1,100 inmates. The facility is across the street from the Jasper County Detention Center in the northern town limits of Ridgeland.
Massey was the third inmate who died in RCI custody within four years. Officials reported their last inmate death in March 2023, when 32-year-old Joel Nathaniel Witman died at a local hospital in a suspected drug overdose.
This story was originally published March 6, 2025 at 3:46 PM.
