By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
Alabama Department of Corrections officials confirmed this week that a Fountain Correctional Facility inmate was killed, apparently by another inmate, just one day before he was scheduled to be released from prison and one day before his 24th birthday.
ADOC officials confirmed that Ian Taylor Rettig, of Jefferson County’s Chelsea community, died May 4. According to court documents and published reports, Rettig, who was serving an 18-month split sentence after convictions for identity theft and theft of property, was stabbed to death.
“Ian Rettig, a 23-year-old inmate who was serving an 18-month sentence for multiple convictions out of Jefferson County and Shelby County at Fountain Correctional Facility … unfortunately passed away on May 4, 2021, from injuries sustained during an apparent inmate-on-inmate assault,” Kristi Simpson, a spokeswoman for the state prison system, said in a May 10 email. “Violence within ADOC facilities is not tolerated, and the fatal actions taken against Rettig by another inmate are being thoroughly investigated by the department’s Law Enforcement Services Division.”
Simpson said the exact cause of the inmate’s death had not yet been determined. An autopsy will be performed by state forensic scientists, and more information will be forthcoming once the autopsy results have been received from the state crime lab.
According to the Birmingham Real-Time News, Rettig was already awaiting trial on 10 felony charges related to a 2015 spree of Shelby County vehicle break-ins when, in 2019, he stole a Mercedes sedan that was left idling in the service lane of a Hoover dealership. He was also charged at that time with one count each of obstructing governmental operations and third-degree escape.