Report: ‘Austin Powers’ Actor Accused of Murdering His Cellmate

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The actor who played Dr. Evil’s shoe-throwing sidekick in the first Austin Powers movie is suspected of killing his prison cellmate.

Joseph Son, 40, is the prime suspect in the murder of a 50-year-old sex offender, with whom Son shared a cell at Wasco State Prison in central California. Korean-born Son played henchman “Random Task,” a spoof of the James Bond character “Oddjob,” in 1997 film Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery.

AP

He is currently serving a 15-year-to-life sentence for the rape and torture of a woman in Huntington Beach, Calif. in 1990.

Son and an accomplice allegedly snatched a 19-year-old girl who had been walking her dog, before taking turns to rape her at gunpoint in the back of their car. The pair then reportedly released the badly-injured victim, who fled, naked and blindfolded, to a nearby home where police were called.

Police collected evidence from the woman that night; however, the case went cold until 2008, when Son’s DNA was linked to the 18-year-old case after he violated probation for a vandalism felony.

The body of Son’s unnamed cellmate, who was serving a two-year sentence for failing to register as a sex offender, was found on Monday evening, police officials told TMZ.

A spokesman for the Kern County coroner’s office said an autopsy is expected to be carried out this week.

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Jak Phillips is a contributor at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @JakPhillips. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.