Boxing champion commits suicide in jail

Caracas, April 20 (IANS/EFE) A former world lightweight boxing champion committed suicide by hanging himself in a jail cell after being detained in connection with his wife’s murder, police said.

Edwin ‘Inca’ Valero, who was confined in a police station in Carabobo state, hanged himself at 1.30 a.m. Monday with his own clothes.

“An inmate in an adjoining area heard noises in the cell and told the police, who came immediately and found the body of the boxer Valero, who used his own clothing to hang himself with,” police chief Wilmer Flores said.

Valero had Sunday confessed to killing his wife, Jennifer Carolina Viera, police said.

Both of them were staying at a hotel in Valencia, where Viera was found stabbed to death Sunday.

Valero had been arrested or detained on earlier occasions on charges of beating his wife, mother and sister.

The Venezuelan boxer had beat Antonio DeMarco in February to retain his WBC lightweight title in Monterrey in Mexico. He has been unbeaten in the last 27 matches.

–IANS/EFE