Montgomery County man sentenced to state prison for killing cellmate inside Delco jail

Elliott Funkhouser and Shad Boccella were wrongly housed together at the Delaware County jail — Boccella had a history of “dangerous and erratic behavior” and was considered a high-risk inmate that should have been alone in a cell, according to court filings.

But the jail was short on space, and the two were placed together, sources at George W. Hill Correctional Facility told The Inquirer at the time. Hours later, Funkhouser, 54, was dead, and Boccella was charged with strangling him with a bedsheet.

Nearly four years later, Boccella, 29, was sentenced Thursday to 10 to 40 years in state prison for the killing.

Boccella, of Brigdeport, Montgomery County, pleaded guilty but mentally ill to third-degree murder in a negotiation with prosecutors that spared him from a trial on first-degree murder and the potential penalty for life in prison that it carries.

In a statement to Delaware County Judge G. Michael Green, Boccella expressed his condolences to Funkhouser’s family.

“If you give me another chance at freedom, just know I’ll do the right thing,” he told the judge.

Assistant District Attorney Amy Cappelli said during Thursday’s proceeding that Boccella was diagnosed with schizophrenia and a unspecified methamphetamine-use disorder during treatment at Norristown State Hospital after his arrest. A more recent evaluation, Cappelli said, found that Boccella, despite his mental illness, was competent to enter his guilty plea.

Corrections officers at the jail found Funkhouser face down and unresponsive in his cell on April 22, 2022, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Boccella’s arrest.

Funkhouser, of Rosemont, was in the jail awaiting trial on burglary and related crimes.

He was cold to the touch and had been wrapped tightly in his bedsheets, with a “noose type sheet” on his chest, but not around his neck, the document said.

The officer who found him noticed a red mark around Funkhouser’s neck and blood coming from his mouth, according to the affidavit. And one of the sheets, detectives said, was knotted and covered in blood.

Boccella, who was found wearing Funkhouser’s shoes, told investigators Funkhouser “came at” him and he had to defend himself, the affidavit said. Afterward, he said, he wrapped him in the sheets.

At the time, Boccella was in a unit designated for inmates with mental-health issues that require close observation and had been there for months, after his arrest for identify theft and receiving stolen property.

Boccella’s attorney, Jason Young, said during Thursday’s hearing that his client has made significant improvements since beginning his treatment while in jail.

Young said Boccella was not on medication when the killing took place, and the lucid, cooperative defendant sitting in Green’s courtroom was “not the person who did this.”

“I think he has an excellent opportunity, with the right treatment, to have a productive life,” Young said."

Meanwhile, Funkhouser’s has family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in federal court, asserting that the county and The GEO Group, the private entity that operated the jail at the time, failed to protect him by housing him with an inmate they knew was dangerous and violent.

“Elliot Funkhouser’s death was preventable, had Defendants exercised any caution or care for Funkhouser, while he was under their care, custody and control, including not placing Mr. Funkhouser in a cell with Boccella,” attorney Michael LaRosa wrote.

At the time of Funkhouser’s murder, the county was in the process of assuming control of the jail from The GEO Group, which had operated the facility since the late 1990s.