A man who made a couple of bizarre court appearances in London after he was charged with threatening to kill Nathaniel Veltman is accused of killing a fellow inmate at the Sarnia Jail.
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Devin Fentie, 33, of Sarnia is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Douglas Cutbush, Sarnia police said Wednesday.
Cutbush, 51, of Sarnia was found with no vital signs in his cell about 3:45 a.m. Wednesday, police said.
“Investigators have since determined the death to be a homicide and have arrested another inmate who shared the same cell with the deceased,” police said.
An autopsy has been scheduled for Thursday through the Ontario Coroner’s Office, police said.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of the Solicitor General said several investigations into Cutbush’s death are underway.
“The ministry can confirm an inmate passed away at the Sarnia Jail early this morning. Given there are multiple ongoing investigations related to this matter, no further information can be provided,” Brent Ross said vie email.
Fentie, who has brown hair and a moustache, wore standard-issue orange jail clothes when he appeared briefly in Sarnia bail court on Wednesday about 3 p.m. He was held pending a court appearance next week.
Fentie was charged in late 2023 with uttering a death threat by letter to mass murderer Nathaniel Veltman, 23, between Nov. 20 and Nov. 29, 2023.
Veltman was convicted Nov. 16, 2023, of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder for intentionally running down a London Muslim family with his pickup truck at a northeast London intersection on June 6, 2021.
Fentie appeared by video in the Ontario Court of Justice in London on Dec. 14, 2023, from the Central North Correctional Centre at Penetanguishene.
“What I want to do is I’m here to kill Nathan Veltman and I’m here to pressure the courts, to pressure your worship, to pressure the Crown to make sure my message is delivered to His Majesty the King,” he told Justice Brian White.
In Fentie’s next appearance on Jan. 17, 2024, a different judge was told Fentie had been ordered to undergo a psychiatric assessment for other charges in Sarnia.
The charge against him of uttering a death threat by letter to kill Veltman was dropped in April.
Fentie was scheduled to appear in London court on Wednesday on other charges. He also has another outstanding case in Sarnia slated to go to trial starting Monday.
Fentie previously was sentenced in Sarnia to probation for assault causing bodily harm, property damage and assaulting a police officer during a Canada Day party in 2012.
He was naked when he tried to punch and head-butt an officer.
Cutbush’s charges, which were laid more than a month ago, were dropped Wednesday by the Crown due to his death.
The jail death is the city’s first homicide of the year, but comes just a month after an international student at Lambton College was stabbed to death in a house rented by multiple people on Queen Street in Sarnia.
Crossley Hunter, 36, who also lived in the house has been charged with second-degree murder.
The last known death of a Sarnia Jail inmate was September 2022, when Cody David Cook, 33, of Sarnia was found in medical distress by jail staff. He later died in hospital.
An inquest was held last year into the 2020 death of Travis Havers, 31, who died by suicide, due in part to not receiving opioid-replacement medication. A jury recommended making nine changes at the jail.