Oakdale prison inmate dies of cancer

A 67-year-old inmate at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville died Sunday of natural causes from lung cancer, according to prison officials.

George Melbern Bennett was serving a 50-year sentence out of Black Hawk County for two counts of second-degree sexual abuse, according to court records. His sentence began Sept. 5, 1999, and he was in the Hospice Care unit at the time of his death, prison officials stated.

Melbern was charged and convicted of making sexual contact with a 5-year-old child, and prosecutors during his trial included evidence that he had similarly abused another child, according to court documents. Bennett denied any sexual contact and attributed the allegations to a personal vendetta against him, court documents show.

But he was convicted and, because he had previously been found guilty of a sexually predatory offense, the court imposed an enhanced sentence. Bennett appealed that sentence, and an appellate court remanded the case for resentencing, according to court records.

Melbern was given the sentence he was serving at the time of his death. A  year ago, he filed a motion for a new trial, but that motion was overruled, according to court records.