‘Austin Powers’ Actor Allegedly Kills Sex Offender in Prison

Former actor and martial arts fighter Joseph Hyungmin Son, who is serving a life term in connection with a gang rape, has been accused of killing his cellmate.

Son, 40, was suspected of killing his 50-year-old cellmate who was found dead Monday afternoon at Wasco State Prison Reception Center in Kern County, LA Times reported quoting authorities.

Son is best known for his role in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery playing the henchman Random Task, a parody of the James Bond character Oddjob. He also appeared in several other movies, including Bloodfist V: Human Target.

The murdered cellmate had been serving his jail sentence of two years for failing to register as a sex offender. A cause of death is pending.

Authorities have named Son as the suspect in the killing, but are waiting for the investigation to complete before pressing the charges.

In early 2008, Son was charged by California authorities in relation to his alleged participation in a gang rape in 1990. According to the prosecution, Son and a friend Santiago Lopez Gaitan kidnapped a woman who was walking with her dog. They raped her, threatening her with a pistol inside his car, before abandoning her naked on the road, with her pants tied across her eyes.

Son was initially charged in Orange County, California, with five counts of rape, two felony counts of forcible sodomy, two felony counts of sodomy in concert by force, seven felony counts of forcible oral copulation, and one felony count of sexual penetration by foreign object by force.

By the time jury selection began for his trial in August of 2011, however, the charges had been changed to conspiracy to commit murder and torture, as the statute of limitations on the original charges had expired.

Son was found guilty of one felony count of torture on August 25, 2011 and was sentenced to life in prison. His cohort Gaitan pleaded guilty of the charges and was sentenced for 17 years imprisonment.