Smith’s attorney, Louis Michael Ching, stated in a court filing that Gouveia is “related and/or associated with” Edward Caspino, the leader of the West Side Gang, whose members took part on one of the assaults on Smith as he was quietly talking with Caspino.

"He was never coming out of prison, except if he was in a box. And then at his age, his life expectancy was probably another 30 years. So to think of that kind of life, he'd rather go than stay."

Lenard Vare, a former prison warden and an expert on prison and jail suicides, said that given Miske’s violent background, an important issue will be whether he was alone in his locked cell, which would rule out his death coming at the hands of someone else.