Jeffrey Lynn Borden, 57, who was on Alabama’s Death Row for a Gardendale murder, has died from what officials said was likely a suicide. Prison officials said Borden was found early Sunday morning hanging by a sheet in his cell.

Borden was convicted of murdering his estranged wife and her father by shooting them at a Christmas gathering in Gardendale in 1993.

The victims in the case were his estranged wife, Cheryl Borden, and her father, Roland Harris.

According to court records, Cheryl Borden’s family was gathering to celebrate the holiday on Christmas Eve in 1993 at her parents’ home.

At approximately 6:45 p.m. Jeffery Borden arrived with the couple’s three children. At this point the couple was still married, but legally separated. The children had spent the preceding days with their father in the Huntsville area.

According to the case file, the grandfather, Harris, stepped outside to help unload the children’s belongings, along with Cheryl Borden. Jeffery Borden then took out a .380 caliber semiautomatic pistol and shot Cheryl Borden in the back of the head. He then shot Harris as he ran toward the house, reportedly to get help for his daughter.

Harris made it into the house before collapsing with a gunshot into his back.

The three children, who witnessed the shooting, ran toward the house through a different entrance than the one Harris used and shouted to the family gathered inside that their father had shot their mother.

Both shooting victims were transported to area hospitals but died from their injuries.

Other family members in the house at the time of the shooting were not harmed.

At trial, Borden was found guilty of capital murder and the jury recommended he be sentenced to death by 10 of the 12 jurors.

Borden had appealed the conviction but none of those appeals were successful. Borden had been scheduled for execution in October of last year, but that order was stayed by the court. 

Borden was serving his time at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, on Alabama’s death row.