A Springfield man has been charged in the 3-year old murder case of 33 year old Earl Little in Pinckneyville Prison.
Special Appellate Prosecutor Jennifer Mudge filed three counts of first-degree murder in Perry County Circuit Court today. The charges relate to the death of Little that happened almost three years ago to the day in his prison cell which he shared with 34 year old Daniel Mueller. Little was found dead in his cell at the medium security prison on July 6th, 2018, supposedly hung by an electrical cord from an oscillating fan.
Little was imprisoned 8 months prior to his death for an armed robbery in DuPage County for which he had received a 21-year sentence. Mueller was in the fourth year of a 30-year sentence for the strangulation murder of his girlfriend in 2014 in Springfield. According to the State Journal Register, Mueller was moved to the Lawrence Correctional Facility shortly after Little’s death.
Little, who was from the Rushville and Quincy area, has never had his autopsy report released by the Illinois Department of Corrections nor his prison medical records due to the supposedly active 3 year investigation into his death in the Southern Illinois prison.
A wrongful death lawsuit was filed by Little’s ex-wife Megan Little of Beardstown in 2018 but it was later dropped for unknown reasons. Little’s family was planning on protests at the Perry County Courthouse and the prison later this month due to lack of movement in the case.
Charging documents say that Mueller “compressed the neck” of Little causing ligature strangulation. Bail has been fixed at $1 million.