The choking death of a suspect in the slaying of a Prince George’s County police officer “appears to be intentional,” County Executive Jack Johnson said late Monday, citing a state’s medical examiner’s report that ruled the death a homicide.

Ronnie L. White, 19, was found in his jail cell Sunday morning dead from asphyxiation with two broken bones in his neck, just 36 hours after he was charged with killing Cpl. Richard S. Findley, 39, said the law enforcement source who declined to be identified because the investigation into White’s death continues.

The FBI and Maryland State Police have opened investigations into White’s death, with the FBI pursuing a civil rights investigation, according to Johnson.

At a press conference late Monday, Johnson spoke of his anger about not just Findley’s death but also that of White. He also raised the possibility that White was killed in retaliation for Findley’s death.

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“We live in a constitutional democracy and no one has the right to be a judge and a jury,” Johnson said. “If we have vigilante justice then our society will fall apart. If there is a person involved, that person will be brought to justice.”

A corrections officer bringing White lunch found the accused police killer slumped against his bunk and unresponsive around 10:30 a.m., corrections officials said.

Police say only 15 minutes earlier officers conducting one of their every half-hour checks had seen White alive, attentive and sitting on his bed.

Vicki Duncan, a corrections spokeswoman, said there are surveillance cameras watching the cell, but they don’t record what they see. She added that according to jail logs, White had no visitors and only two officers had access to his cell.

Johnson said there were seven corrections officers who had access to White’s cell as well as an unknown number of supervisors.

“No one is a suspect yet, but the investigation will continue,” Johnson said.

It’s not typical for suspected killers of officers to be held in the county where they committed the crime, but because of his weekend arrest, there weren’t enough staff members for the protocol to be followed, said Col. Greg Harris, head of jail operations.

According to court documents, White wasn’t officially booked into the jail until 12:45 p.m. Saturday, some 12 hours after he was taken into custody with three other suspects found in Laurel near the scene of Findley’s death.

On Friday morning, Findley, along with Cpl. Kelvin Scruggs were watching a stolen truck as two men entered it, police said in court documents. At that point, Findley flipped on his emergency lights and blocked the truck with his cruiser.

As Findley, who was dressed in plain clothes, exited the cruiser, the driver of the truck “intentionally accelerated toward Cpl. Findley and ran him over,” police wrote. Findley fired several rounds into the truck’s hood and windshield, but the two men, believed by police to be White and Gerald Wright, escaped.

Wright, who has yet to be charged, suffered a gunshot wound during the incident.

Findley’s death was the first since his friend and mentor Cpl. Steven Gaughan, 41, was killed in a gunbattle in June 2005. Police sources say Findley had a keepsake commemorating Gaughan with him when he died.

fklopott@dcexaminer.com