Elyria man serving life in federal prison gets 30 more years for killing cellmate

A former Elyria man already serving a life sentence in federal prison for running a human trafficking ring has been sentenced to another 30 additional years in prison for murdering his cellmate in 2021. Jeremy Mack, 50, was sentenced Aug. 28 to 30 years and 5 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to murder in the second degree in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, according to federal prosecutors. U.S. District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson also ordered Mack to pay $3,000 in restitution, according to court records and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Indiana. Mack was serving a life sentence at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, on Sept. 3, 2021, when corrections officers responded to an "inmate duress alarm" in a general population housing unit, U.S. Attorney Tom Wheeler said in a news release. Corrections officers "found inmate Jeremy Mack standing near the door with the lights off. Officers instructed Mack to turn on the light and immediately observed blood on Mack's hands and forearms. His cellmate, Stephen Cannada, was lying on the floor in a pool of blood," the news release said. Officers tried to revive Cannada but he was pronounced dead by medical staff. An autopsy revealed his cause of death was multiple stab wounds to the neck and abdomen. The FBI and U.S. Bureau of Prisons investigated the killing. Indiana Public Media reported that Cannada had just arrived at the prison in Terra Haute to start an eight-year sentence for drug crimes. Mack reportedly is now being held in the federal prison system's "Supermax" prison, ADX Florence in Colorado, Indiana Public Media reported. "This additional sentence underscores our office's commitment to ensuring accountability, even within the walls of a federal prison. The sentence imposed reflects the gravity of this crime, and we hope it brings a sense of justice and closure to the family and loved ones of Mr. Cannada," Wheeler said in the news release. "Violence within our correctional system will not be tolerated. Even individuals already serving lengthy prison terms are accountable under the law when they commit further acts of violence," Special Agent in Charge Timothy O'Malley of the FBI's Indianapolis office said in the news release. Mack is serving time in federal prison for his part in for running a violent human trafficking ring in Elyria. A federal jury deliberated less than a day in February 2014 in U.S. District Court in Akron before finding Mack, then 38, guilty of sex trafficking, drug distribution, conspiracy and witness tampering, according to Chronicle-Telegram archives. Mack ran a sex trafficking ring out of a rental house on Tattersall Court in Elyria. One of his victims, a 16-year-old girl, he lured with drugs including cocaine and heroin. Mack gave women drugs in exchange for sex acts, then forced them into a sex-for-hire situation when they couldn't pay their debts to him, according to court records cited by the Chronicle at the time. Up to 10 women controlled by Mack advertised sexual services as "escort services' on websites such as Backpage.com and Craigslist. Elyria police and the FBI raided the house in April 2013. Testimony in court was that Mack held the women at gunpoint, strip-searched them when drugs went missing and threatened to kill them. Mack denied doing so in letters to the Chronicle, saying that the women lied. He also manipulated witnesses from behind bars, according to his charges. Mack "preyed upon vulnerable women and held them in conditions akin to modern-day slavery," Steve Dettelbach, former U.S. Attorney for Northern Ohio, said in 2014.Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com