An inmate under hospice care died early Friday morning at William Donaldson Correctional Facility.

The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office said Jerome Alfred Burton, 72, died at 12:17 a.m. in the prison infirmary.

He was under hospice care for “multiple significant natural diseases.” There was no evidence of trauma or foul play, the coroner’s office said.

Burton, of Irvington, was serving a life sentence for murder from a 2013 conviction out of Mobile County.

Police and firefighters responded to a blaze at 7440 Murray Heights Drive South in Irvington on the evening of June 8, 2010. They found the badly burned body of Deborah Burton sitting on a recliner in the living room, with a gunshot wound near her left eye. A medical examiner testified that the 56-year-old woman likely was alive for some time during the fire.

Paramedics pulled an unconscious Jerome Burton from the burning house and rushed him to the hospital, where he remained for more than two weeks.

According to testimony at the trial, Deborah Burton was going to leave her husband because of his excessive drinking and his failure to get a job. Police found his Glock pistol on his bed and determined it was a match to a .40-caliber shell casing found near the body.

The Alabama Department of Corrections – Law Enforcement Services Division is investigating the circumstances surrounding the death.