due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. >> just trip over something? >> i don't remember, man. >> somebody help you fall? >> no. >> prison staff suspect an inmate is covering up his own brutal beating. >> i don't like using the same broom that everybody else uses, because then i'm just bringing their funk into my cell. >> two cell mates share deeply disturbing passes. >> when i was younger, i was a

very bad person. >> i ended up buying a chainsaw and cutting her corpse into 50 different pieces. >> one mother still lives the nightmare. >> i go by the dumpster and i last resting place. ♪ lock up, lock up, everybody lockup ♪ her another inmate tries to make a difference. ♪ amazing grace >> at the end of the day, life is about choices. all of this stuff is an illusion.

>> indiana's wabash valley correctional facility houses nearly 2,200 inmates. more than one-third are doing time for serious violent crimes. a less isolated than solitary confinement, the vast majority of inmates live in two-man cells. pairings are critical, and avoiding a volatile mix of cell mates is a constant challenge. >> we troy to not put people that are doing life with people that go home next year, or blacks with whites, or a white supremacist that might have a child molestation case, just to try to resolve the conflict before it happens. >> even with careful screening, conflicts can still arise between cell mates. >> it was reported we just had an assault. a guy in the infirmary received several injuries to his facial and head area, and at this point, he said he just had a seizure and we're going to go

over and try to talk to him. they discovered he may have been assaulted with a hot pot. we're going to see what we can find out, if he's throng talk at all. >> the victim, curtis cash, is serving a 29-year sentence for burglary. >> cash. what's up with you, man? you can lay down if you want to. what happened to you, bud. >> fell. >> where did you fall? >> my cell. >> did you get dizzy? >> yeah. >> have you had a seizure? >> i don't remember. >> ever felt like this before since you been here? >> no. >> first time? >> yeah. >> any medical conditions make you fall? >> no. >> just trip over something? >> i don't remember. >> did somebody help you fall? >> no. >> safe to assume that probably something more than you falling happened that you don't want to talk about? >> no. >> who do you live with? >> woods. >> woods?

>> yeah. >> what's his first name? >> i don't know. >> how long did you live together? >> probably eight months. >> eight months, and you think you're safe going back to the same cell you was in? >> yeah. >> don't think you'll fall again? >>. no. >> you think for whatever reason you fell this time is over with and you won't fall no more? >> yeah. >> you understand where i'm coming from? >> yeah. >> i mean, i'll fell. leave it at that. >> you don't want to talk about what happened? is that safe to say. we'll get x-rays. >> he reported he fallen in his cell which is typical in prison, instead of these guys wanting to snitch on anybody. they'll say they fell, hit their head, had a seizure. has substantial injuries. jaw is possibly broken.

orbital possibly fractured. something that was done with a hot pot. a hot pot is broken and we'll go over and talk to the cell mates and see what happens. >> the cell mate is dana woods. >> apparently there was an incident in your cell a while back, and we want to talk to you about. >> that's right. >> pretty substantial injuries for him falling. >> well, i'm sure the man has epileptic seizures. they found the man before on the floor. >> a lot of blood in the cell. a pretty good gash on the head. how did the hot pot get broke. >> it was broke because he was fixing the hot pot before and and it was trash the whole time. >> i have been here 15 years,

and i never seen a fall like this. >> he fell off the bed. >> it puts things, his life in danger. he might have told me he fell, he might have told you beat the [ bleep ] out of him. i'm convinced you did this. not a simple fall. but you are not going to man up and tell me what happened, why it happened, how much it happened. >> i didn't do it, blood all over the place. >> it's not the truth at all and we both know it, so i'll make different housing arrangements for you if you don't want to tell me what was going on. he's maintaining the story that nothing happened, that he didn't do anything, that the guy fell. so at this point we'll go in, i'm going to go look at the cell, see what it looks like.

>> while violence between cell mates is always a possibility in prison, for philip stroud and curtis mcgrown, living together has had the opposite affect. >> is that the diabetic nasty peanut butter. why don't you put the cookie on the peanut butter? >> no, no. >> that's more like a snack. >> that's more like a snack. >> thank you for this meal. oh, kurt. kurt is -- kurt is a good brother, man. he's a gentle giant. he brought a lot of balance into my life. we've been cellies for almost two years. >> stroud never imagined he would have a cell mate. he used to be housed on indiana's death row, living alone in a cell awaiting execution. >> i'm in prison for three counts of murder. three counts of robbery. two counts of dealing in

cocaine. i spent three years on death row. went on robbery. half a million-dollar score. it was a residence, a safe. three people. three innocent people ended up losing their life when they didn't have to. they didn't deserve to. >> stroud's victims were contractors working at the home that stroud and his accomplices robbed. stroud ordered the man tied up and then shot each in the head with a pistol. >> when i first walked on death row, the thing that hit me first was the silence. the absolute silence.

walking on there, the type of silence that takes you in. the type of silence that's listening you, watching your every move. to see how you will respond to it. i just came on the unit, 23 years old. trying to project courage, confidence, strength, but on the inside, i was upset, confused, and i was afraid. the thing i remember the most was the cold concrete floor under my bare feet and sitting on the edge of that bunk, and i just broke down, started crying and crying for all of the people i hurt, crying for justice, crying for my mother, you know what i mean? and during those three years, seven men were executed, they lost their lives. >> a change in indiana's capital

punishment laws saved stroud from joining them. his sentence was commuted to three life terms without the possibility of parole. but stroud's salvation didn't make him a better inmate. >> i was the thug of them all. i was a chief among all sinners. the i was the bully's bully. i can make things move how i want to make them move. you know what i mean? that was the gift that i had. >> that all changed when he found himself sharing a cell with mcgrout. who is serving 40 years for armed robbery and criminal confinement. >> he was rough around the edges. me, mellow type guy. god came through me to help straighten him out. >> starting to thin out. >> that's my rooftop. >> you are a convertible. bald headed brothers are in, let

me tell you. >> he's changed a lot. i'm proud of myself that god used me to work with him after his reputation around the prison and on the street. >> i'm thankful that i could be used and i got a brother like this that brought so much balance to my life. >> just as he credits mcgrown with becoming a better man, stroud is determined to pay it over. he spends free time tutoring other inmates, likeaustin, trying to earn his ged. >> left. >> oh, yeah. >> just trying to offer critical thinking skills, conflict resolution, and a sign of disputes without violence, used a platform and we have past

lives, and try to adjust to life in here and on the streets. >> doing good, man. man, you catch on quick, for reechl. >> coming up, two cell mates with two unthinkable crimes. and later -- >> what have you seen so far? >> prison surveillance footage provides a new view as investigators try to figure out what happened to curtis cash and whether his cell mate should bear the blame.

at indiana's wabash valley correctional facility most of the inmates live in two-man cells and like any two people sharing close quarters, cleanliness is vital. >> why are you sweeping with your hands? >> i don't like using the broom

that everybody else uses, i'm just bringing their funk into my cell. >> when do you think we're doing spring cleaning? >> it's not going to be today. i'm already cleaning the floor. >> that's fine. i was just asking. >> i will make time for it this weekend. >> sunday just plan on sunday. >> cell mates for a year these two might have different priorities but they share the stigma of having separately committed unthinkable crimes. >> from day one i've known that the things that i've done even among criminals was way, way off it, you know the end of the deep end. i was younger, i was a very,

very bad person. something was broken. and i just -- i didn't think like other kids my age did. forward. >> trowbridge was high on inhalents and his victim was a 69-year-old female neighbor working in the backyard of her trailer home. >> i see that her front door is open and me being the person that i was that clicked. okay. go get some money. and that was my intent when i went up in there. and she came in and she actually scared me when she came in because i didn't know that she came in. and i attacked her and i sexually assaulted her and i killed her.

and i robbed her. and i left. the poor woman didn't stand a chance. >> prosecutors determined that trowbridge not only strangled his victim but sexually assaulted her after her death. he was sentenced to 77 years for robbery, murder and abuse of a corpse. he has served 15 and with good behavior could be out of prison by age 50. he lives in wabash's protective custody unit which houses inmates whose lives could be at risk in general population due to the nature of their crimes. his cell mate shares the same unusual pairing of convictions, murder and abuse of a corpse.

he is serving 68 years. the victim was his ex-girlfriend, heather norris. >> it was a toxic relationship. it was love hate and i still very much love her. >> throughout the couple's three-year relationship, heather told her family that bean was abusive and even though he faced a trial on domestic abuse charges at the time of heather's murder he says he wasn't abusive. >> it was predicated on a lie. the lie is that we had a violent relationship. i'm not saying i'm without fault. but as far as what happened with her death, worst case voluntary manslaughter and best case self-defense. >> he insists that heather came

at him with a knife. >> i pried the knife out of her hand and even still after i had the knife she continued to come forward. that caught me off guard. and in the heat of the moment, i reacted. i stabbed her in the side right here. >> but according to court records, bean had confessed to a friend that he stabbed heather several times and slit her throat. no one knows for sure because her body was never recovered. >> i decided to try to do something with the body. i thought, well, cremation. but at the time i didn't know the specifics behind it. so i made an attempt to burn her body. a botched attempt. i ended up buying a chain saw.

that's what people can't get past. is what happened after. >> coming up the mother of josh bean's victim speaks out. >> i go by a dumpster and i wonder if that is one of my daughter's last resting places. >> but first. >> looks like he tried to clean the blood up before the staff arrived. there is blood on the bedding and on the back window. >> reporter: the investigators try to determine if a cell is an accident scene or a crime scene. and -- ♪ >> saved from death row, philip stroud leads the choir. feel the power my young friend. mmm! [ male announcer ] for unsurpassed fruit and veggie nutrition... v8 v-fusion. could've had a v8.

at indiana's wabash valley correctional far the m-house cell block has been put on

lockdown, limiting movement of all inmates until investigate corresponds determine the cause of curtis cash's severe facial injuries. both catch and his cell mate, dana woods, claim he fell. but frank littlejohn suspects a coverup. >> the suspect probably told the victim don't tell on me. tell them you fell. pretty typical. nobody falls and received that many injuries. >> littlejohn suspects that woods might have used the hot pot to assault his cell mate. >> the hot pot was down in the trash. >> littlejohn's next step is to create the cell itself. >> you can see a little blood here. looks like he tried to clean the blood up before the staff arrived. there is blood on the bedding and some on the back window. it is probably a little

struggle. it looks like he packed his property. that is typical. they pack their stuff up so the officers don't get things mixed up. he is ready to go to segregation. he knew he would be going. >> littlejohn checks the surveillance footage. while there is no coverage inside the cell he wants to rule out the possibility of another assailant entering the cell. >> what have you seen? >> nobody goes up or comes out. >> nobody has been in or out between breakfast or lunch. >> you see the officers are at the cell. this is offender cash. he is the offender with the injuries. this is the cell mate coming up. >> the video doesn't show an assault taking place. it shows that nobody entered or exited the cell other than the two and they didn't come out for breakfast or for lunch.

whatever happened inside the cell. >> woods was taken to the custody control unit where he will be locked into a single person cell 23 hours a day pending the results of the investigation. >> go ahead and strip down. socks and everything. everything. put that on. >> they put us in a room. they don't give us no manual to teach us how to live in a box with another man. it's really hard. it's really hard, man. especially when they have a seizure any time and you get blamed for it. >> coming up, joshua bean faces new troubles following a shakedown. >> you are presenting positive for methamphetamine. >> and later his victim's mother talks about the brutality of her

daughter's murder. >> i have nightmares of heather's last moments were calling out for me to help her.

msnbc now. the last american troops have left iraq. marking an end to the nearly nine-year war in that country. the final convoy rolled across the border in the early morning hours. 4,500 american soldiers lost their lives in the war. more than 400 people are dead in the philippines after a tropical storm flooded rivers. most were asleep when floodwaters tore through their home. now back to "lockup." due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. it's where to be. locked up. yeah.

the steps you don't want to follow because life without parole is a hard pill to swallow. tomorrow isn't promised because today isn't finished. i can feel the tension when there is drama in the building. there is nowhere for you to hide. i suggest you stay away from here and follow god. prison life is hard. locked up. locked up, everybody locked up. this ain't the place you want to be because prison life is hard. locked up, locked up, everybody locked up. this ain't the place you want to be because prison life is hard. make different choices than the ones i made. stay free. keep it real. peace. >> though phillip stroud will never live life beyond the fences of the wabash valley correctional facility he has found other means of liberation.

♪ >> music to me is more important than food or water or than anything. it makes me free. it just makes me free, you know. ♪ >> stroud leads the prison choir. they perform during sunday church services and at special events and his cell mate curtis mcgrown has been a source of help and inspiration. >> you have your choice and you should have made a change. there is nowhere to left to hide. i almost met this fate this ain't the way you want to die. i suggest you stay away from here and follow god. i know it is hard out on them streets but prison life is harder. >> that is one of the best ones

i have heard him sing right there. >> he raps a lot and sings a lot. he will be waking me up at 3:00 heel he'll wake me up and want to write a rap for church or a letter. i am a mentor toward him. >> what position am i playing in the choir? >> doo-doo-doo-doo. >> i can't doo-doo-doo. >> i just stereo typed you based on your stomach. >> that's all right. be gone. >> ♪ amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me ♪ >> once awaiting execution on death row, stroud is now serving three life sentences without the possibility of parole for murder. >> i'm using my street

credibility my music to influence them in a different direction because i am mindful that it is a lot of people who do look towards me. >> ♪ amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me ♪ >> it has been 11 years since the triple murder that brought stroud to prison. for the past several years he has a clean conduct record and is committed to become agnew a new man, one very different than the one who wreaked havoc on the streets. >> if you had something that that i wanted your girlfriend, your car, your money, your territory, whatever, if i wanted that, i was coming to get that. if you tried to come get it from me then i was coming to get you. if i'm coming to see you, it was over with.

i would be the last person that you would see. i was the nuclear option. ♪ >> at the end of the day, life is about choices. all of this stuff is an illusion, the life i led on the streets, the dope dealing, the gang banging, the getting drunk and getting high. if you want to keep it real make better choices than the ones we made. it can lead you down three paths, death, a life in prison or an empty existence on the streets. >> one man band. >> while stroud uses music to escape the restraints of prison many others turn to drugs. and despite the efforts of staff drugs are smuggled into the

prison. traffic and abuse pose security problems. security officers conduct surprise shakedowns to find drugs. inmates are required to give urine samples. today's target is the protective custody unit. >> two-man teams. bring them out and set them down. >> 504. >> remember these guys are all in protective custody. put a little space between them. >> opposite end. >> among those to to be searched and tested are two of wabash's high-profile inmates, joshua bean and dustin trowbridge. >> open 504.

>> shortly after bean and trowbridge are allowed back this their cell, corrections officers return to administer the drug tests. >> we test for morphine, oxy, meth, cocaine and marijuana. >> bean. >> the containers are designed with a drug detection patch that provides immediate results. all right. bean, right? i have you showing positive for methamphetamine. that's your testing. you want it sent to the lab. >> send it to the lab. there ain't no way. >> he can request a second test from an outside lab if he tests

positive. he is confident it is because of a prescription drug he is allowed to take. >> i'm on wellbutrin. it will tell you at the lab, right? >> getting narcotics back here is next to impossible. so you know i don't have a doubt when it goes to the lab i'll be all right. >> for bean, a positive drug test could result in a transfer out of the protective custody unit where the high-profile nature of his crime, the murder of his ex-girlfriend and destroying her corpse could make him a target among other inmates. >> i have not been anywhere in the county to in prison that i didn't see someone who knew who i was. who hadn't seen stuff on the news about my case. it follows me everywhere. i tested positive for pot maybe a year or two ago and they took me to a disciplinary unit g-house. i was over there for a half hour

and had four or five people say, look, if you don't get out of here we're just going to straight stab you. coming up, investigators reach conclusions on both curtis cash and bean. [ male announcer ] what if you have potatoes? but you've got a meat and potatoes guy? pour chunky sirloin burger soup over those mashed potatoes and dinner is served. four minutes, around four bucks. campbell's chunky -- it's amazing what soup can do.

it's been nearly a week since wabash rally inmate dana woods has been accused of brutally beating his cell mate. curtis cash suffered a broken jaw and a bloody face. since then woods has been on a 23-hour lockdown in the custody control unit until the investigation was completed. >> it appeared on the scene that

cash had been assaulted by woods with a hot pot. he sustained lacerations to his face, multiple bruising to his neck and all over his body where it appeared to us he had been kicked. >> but both cell mates are sticking to the story that cash's injuries were the result of falling down in the cell. >> because of the lack of cooperation from the alleged assailant and the alleged victim we did not file any external or internal charges on mr. woods or mr. cash. >> both of these guys have a lot of years left in prison. it's normal for the victim not to want to talk. he is not going to want to be labeled as snitch. that will further the probability of being assaulted in the future. he is maintaining the story that he fell. >> woods was released from the custody control unit and returned to general population. but he has a new cell assignment in a new housing unit.

>> you got to get along in here. you got to. >> we get along good. >> have you seen cash since the altercation? >> no. he's on the other side of the prison. >> did you guys leave on good terms? >> of course. >> over in the protective custody unit joshua bean has received word on his ongoing investigation. after testing positive for methamphetamine during a recent shake down bean requested an outside lab do its own test. the results came back negative backing up bean's claims. i take wellbutrin. that pretty much means you test positive for methamphetamine. that's what i figured it would

be from the beginning. i knew i wasn't doing anything. >> open your mouth. >> although the drug creates problems when he is tested, according to bean it has become his lifeline. he says he needs the medication to cope with the anxiety and stress of being incarcerated for murder of his girlfriend. >> and you know just when i think i have a grip on it, these wounds are scar tissue, i thought was healed just opens back up all over again. and you know i'm -- sometimes partially in tears, sometimes i just want to hit the off switch when i don't have one. there's no on and off to a lot of this stuff. it happens when it happens and i just got to deal with it. >> on the eve of his 30th birthday bean's cell mate dustin trowbridge has spent nearly half of his life in prison for murdering and assaulting a 69-year-old woman. he too attempts to make peace with the past.

>> i didn't used to like myself. i had a will the of hatred towards myself for a long time. only the back of my arms it says freak of nature. you know, i started seeing things completely different. i started understanding things different too. and i changed. i don't want to say it's because i found god or anything like that. that all came afterwards. that didn't come until years after i figured out what a piece of crap i used to be. >> i can never ask you to forgive me for the horrible things i did to you. >> they reach out to the women they not only murdered but whose bodies they desecrated.

>> i never wanted anything but your love. i never would have hurt you. >> but the mother of bean's victim has a very different. >> i know that heather was beaten by him at least four times.

more than 2,000 inmates are housed behind the walls of the wabash county correctional facility. but housing assignments are temporary as these two cell mates found out. they were moved from their larger corner cell to a smaller one on the other side of the unit. >> why did they move you out of the corner area? >> did you see the dude in that cell now? >> he is a bit bigger. he needed that cell a bit more than we did. >> they moved you out of that

cell because there was a bigger guy moving in? >> it was a handicapped cell. we are both kind of small. i'm bigger than him but the guy bigger than me needed that cell more than me. they looked like they was in a match box when we moved in here. >> but for stroud the only thing that changed is the view. >> to me it's all prison. you know, that's how i look at it. whether the cell was ten times this sides or half this size i might have been in worse situations. i just look at it like we are still in prison and can't go home. the only environment is this environment right here, you know what i mean. i got a nice view. i got a view that i look at now and it's really -- >> step over here so you can see. >> to young person or anybody who think that coming to prison is cool or whatever. come here.

that's what i got the look at for the rest of my life. those wires. that might be the closest that i ever get to freedom is close but it's far away. that's what lock up is. that is what my extended stay is like. that's for real. that's real life. it's not high like in the movies. it ain't none of that, man. this is my bed. when i look out the window that's what i see. >> dustin trowbridge keeps a record of the cells he occupied over the last 15 years. >> i wrote down where i was every birthday since i been here. 15th was in the drunk tank in the county jail. 16th was in the cell above me. 17th was on the right side. 18th was on the right side. >> trowbridge has decided to

write a letter to the elderly woman he robbed, murdered and sexually assaulted. >> i can never ask you to forgive me for the horrible things i did to you. i can't get forgive myself. i am sorry i stole your sense of security when i snuck in your home and stole your sense of accomplishment and endeavors. when i took your belongings. i'm sorry i stole your dignity when i assaulted you in the despicable ways i did. i'm story i stole you from your loved ones when i very cowardly took the life that god gave you. there is no words that can ever express how sorry i am. to those who flew and loved [ bleep ], i'm sorry and will not ask for forgiveness either. every day for over half my life not a moment has gone by when i didn't hang my head in guilt and

shame. that's it. >> why did you feel the need to write that? >> well, i think it was -- this was as much for myself as it was for anybody else's sake. i this is going to sound kind of silly but i really didn't -- couldn't comprehend death until someone i knew -- until i had experienced that loss. and it -- it kind of put things in a completely different perspective when my grandma died. trowbridge's cell mate wrote a letter to his victim heather, his former girlfriend who he stabbed to death. >> i cannot push these emotions to the darkest place in my mind

any more. i suppressed so much. your parents think i abused and beat you on multiple occasions and your friends think i controlled and forced you to be with me. i am so far abusive, sometimes i find it beyond belief how i ended up where i am. i never wanted anything other than your love, babe. i never would have hurt you. yet you are dead and i might as well be. >> but debby norris, heather's mother says that bean is a liar. >> i know that heather was beaten by him at least four times, four times that were pretty bad. one time she ended up going to the hospital after a beating. two of those beatings she pressed charges and he was arrested on one charge and the other charge was pending when he killed her.

>> debby norris did not allow her daughter to die in vain. after heather's death she led the effort that resulted in the passing of heather's law which made domestic violence education a requirement in indiana high schools. >> i'm trying to educate the young people on what a healthy relationship is and the signs they need to look for and what to do and that there are people out there that care and there are resources for them to turn to. when you're in abusive relationship and you decide to go back, you are going the hear the words i'm sorry. i've changed. i'll never do it again. i love you. and you want to believe it. so you end up going back and i believe that's what heather did. >> i mean she loved me. i know she did. when she -- when she was --

after she got off me i had stabbed her right here she lay down. i held her in my arms and before she died, she said i love you. and those were her last words. >> during his sentencing one of the things that he did say was heather's last words that i love you, josh. i will never believe that. i have nightmares that heather's last moments was calling out for me to help her because she had done that so many times before. i don't see where this would have been any different. >> one fact that is indisputable is that bean attempted to get away with murdering heather by dismembering her body with a chain saw and placing the parts in trash dumpsters throughout indianapolis.

heather's body was never recovered. >> i go by a dumpster and i wonder if that's one of my daughter's last resting places. i see black trash bags and it makes me sick. i hear a chain saw and i have to get away. so much is different, obviously. he took heather's life. but he took mine. he took her dad's. he took her family's. he took her friends'. nobody is the same. nobody has ever stopped missing heather.