Randall Lee Smith was pronounced dead at a Pulaski County hospital shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday, said Lt. Ron Hamlin of the Giles County Sheriff’s Department.

Smith, 54, was apprehended Tuesday night after he crashed a pickup truck that belonged to one of two fishermen shot earlier that night in the Dismal Creek area of Giles County. Smith was injured in the crash and was hospitalized in Roanoke after being taken into custody as a suspect in the shootings. Doctors placed him on a ventilator until sometime Thursday.

Hamlin said officers at the New River Valley Regional Jail found Smith lying on his side and unresponsive about 5 p.m.

Smith had been in a medical ward and was alone in his cell, he said. He said jail officials found no external signs of suicide. He would not speculate as to whether the death was caused from the head and shoulder injuries Smith received when he crashed the pickup truck.

“He had given up on life. I saw that yesterday,” Hamlin said. “He said he was ready for death.” Hamlin said that Smith had been talkative and alert Friday, telling police more than they had expected to learn from Smith about their investigation into the shootings of the two fishermen.

Hamlin said his department would continue that investigation, but that it was less urgent now that Smith is dead, “unless somebody comes up missing.” Smith’s body will be taken to Roanoke on Monday for an autopsy, Hamlin said.

Tuesday's shootings happened not far from the area where Smith killed Susan Ramsay and Robert Mountford Jr. in 1981 after encountering them on the Appalachian Trail. Smith served 15 years in prison for the killings and was released in 1996.