Man serving life for Franklin County murder dies in prison at 34

A man who was serving life in prison for killing a man in a roadside robbery in Franklin County in 2016 was found dead in his prison cell on Tuesday.

Inmate Ryan Lynn Horton, 34, was found unresponsive in his cell at the State Correctional Institution at Somerset, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.

Prison staff and medical personnel immediately responded and provided life-saving measures, then EMS arrived and continued advanced life support measures. Horton was declared dead at 6:16 p.m.

Pennsylvania State Police will investigate. The Somerset County Coroner's Office will determine Horton's cause of death.

Horton shot Edward Gilhart, 60, multiple times during the roadside robbery in Peters Township on June 2, 2016, a plan he orchestrated with two others. 

Horton, along with Christian Harris and Emily Tucker, all of McConnellsburg, set a trap along Buchanan Trail West (Pa. 16) by placing a duffel bag in the middle of the road and hiding until someone stopped, according to court documents. Tucker allegedly left Horton and Harris in the area, then picked them up after the shooting.

When Gilhart stopped to check out the bag, Harris and Horton allegedly approached him while holding guns. The man held his hands in the air and said "don't shoot," but Horton fatally shot him, according to police. 

Tucker and Harris are believed to have then driven away in Gilhart's vehicle, ditching it in Fulton County.

Previous:Man, 30, to serve life in prison for fatal roadside robbery near Mercersburg

Troopers later found the damaged car against a tree with the engine still running. Gilhart's wallet was found in the passenger seat with everything removed except his driver's license.

According to court documents, Gilhart was found around 4 a.m., when a motorist's vehicle hit his body in the road. Police believe Gilhart, of Hancock, Md., had left for work between 3 and 3:30 a.m., for his job in McConnellsburg.

Police learned more details about the incident when Tucker went to state police a few days later to report a domestic violence incident involving Horton. The trio were arrested by the next day. 

At Horton's sentencing hearing June 2019, Judge Jeremiah Zook said the crimes were "shocking, to say the least."

"The extreme randomness of selecting the victim — there are hardly any words for it," he said.

In a victim impact statement read in court by the district attorney, Gilhart's wife, Bonnie, said her husband would have retired a year after he was killed and would have had more time to do things he loved, like fishing.

"The hardest thing in my life was when someone came to the door telling me my husband was dead," the letter read. "I had to call my son to tell him his father was dead over $24."

Are the other defendents in prison?

Harris pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery-inflict serious bodily injury in 2019 and was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison, with credit for 1,143 days time served.

Tucker pleaded guilty to hindering apprehension and conspiracy to commit theft by unlawful taking. She was sentenced to one to two years imprisonment on the first charge, followed by a consecutive sentence of three to six years on the other charge. She received credit for 1,129 time served.

Searches for each defendent in the Department of Corrections' inmate search turned up no results.