Sheriff backs Mass. jail after Craigslist suicide

BOSTON (AP) — A sheriff has defended the safety record of the Boston jail where a man accused of killing a New York City masseuse he met through Craigslist committed suicide.

Inmate Philip Markoff was found dead in his cell Sunday as he awaited trial in the 2009 killing of Julissa Brisman. Authorities say the 24-year-old former medical student made a scalpel from a pen and a piece of metal and injured himself and covered his head with a plastic bag.

Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral said Wednesday the jail has one of the lowest suicide rates in the country. She says in the last eight years only five inmates have killed themselves.

Markoff also was charged in the robbery of a Las Vegas woman and the assault of a stripper in Rhode Island.