Michael Leroy Grant Jr., 42, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the 2011 shooting death of his friend and neighbor Anthony Wayne Edens, 42.

HOOKERTON – A prison inmate convicted in 2013 of being high on bath salts when he shot and killed his neighbor in Pender County was found dead Monday from an apparent suicide.

Michael Leroy Grant Jr., 42, was found unresponsive in an inmate dormitory about 3:30 p.m. at Maury Correctional Institution, according to a release from the NC Department of Public Safety.

Grant pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the 2011 shooting death of his friend and neighbor Anthony Wayne Edens, 42.

According to the prosecutor at sentencing, Grant was high on synthetic drugs called bath salts when he thought aliens were on his roof and he fired shots into it.

Grant then went outside and opened fire in his backyard toward Edens’ home. When Edens confronted him, Grant shot the man seven times in front of his children.

Reporter F.T. Norton can be reached at 910-343-2070 or Fran.Norton@StarNewsOnline.com.