Ancora patient dies after being hit

A patient at Ancora State Psychiatric Hospital in Winslow Township died Wednesday night, more than a week after another patient punched him in the stomach during an argument over a cigarette.

Robert Williams, 52, died at Cooper University Hospital, where he was taken after being struck on Jan. 1.

The patient who hit Williams, Tyrell McAllister, 23, was charged last week with aggravated assault. The case is being reviewed to determine if McAllister should face a homicide charge.

He is being held at the Camden County Jail on $50,000 bail.

McAllister and Williams argued over the cigarette while in a fenced-in area outside the hospital, investigators said.

Williams did not tell anyone that he had been punched until 7 p.m., when he started having severe abdominal pain, authorities said. He was taken to Cooper, where he remained until his death.

Ancora is a 709-bed state hospital that has a unit to house patients deemed insane by criminal courts. Both Williams and McAllister had been civilly committed to the institution, but authorities did not have more information on their status.

Williams was the second patient to be killed at Ancora in the last six months. In July, a female patient suffocated her roommate with a pillow. After an investigation, two psychiatrists and five nurses were suspended for "neglect of duty" in that death.

Also last year, a resident at a group home on the grounds of Ancora was charged with raping another resident, and a former deputy chief executive officer pleaded guilty to exposing and touching himself in front of female employees.

Ancora used to house Marvin Lister before he was transferred to the Camden County Jail for raping another patient and hitting a doctor.

In the jail, he killed Joel Seidel, another inmate in the mental health ward. That 2004 death sparked a wave of changes at the jail and a lawsuit from Seidel's family.