File photo | May 20, 2008

Brian Sheppard was the first person to face a murder charge in Salem in a decade.

A Christiansburg man accused of an April killing in a Food Lion parking lot in Salem was found dead in his jail cell, police said.

Brian S. Sheppard, 38, was found dead at the Roanoke County-Salem Jail about noon Saturday. He appeared to have committed suicide in his cell, Roanoke County police said.

Roanoke County Sheriff Gerald Holt said a deputy found Sheppard dead after he had apparently hanged himself with a pair of shoelaces.

Sheppard was being held on first-degree murder charges in connection with the shooting death of James R. Fleshman Jr., 48, of Roanoke County.

Sheppard's death occurred days before he was scheduled for a preliminary hearing, which was set for Friday.

Holt said that another inmate alerted a deputy to check on Sheppard during meal time Saturday. Holt said he believed that Sheppard was in the cell by himself and had not been under suicide watch. A medical deputy who had recently seen Sheppard on his rounds said he appeared to be jovial and happy, Holt said.

"He had not shown signs of any mental distress," Holt said.

The jail went into lockdown shortly after the discovery and officials are investigating.

Sheppard's death marks the third suicide at the jail since June 2007, Holt said.

Sheppard was accused of committing Salem's first homicide in a decade.

Sheppard and Fleshman had been arguing in the Food Lion parking lot on Wildwood Road when he shot Fleshman multiple times in broad daylight on April 29, authorities said.

Montgomery County deputies apprehended Sheppard in Christiansburg about 20 minutes after the shooting.

A search warrant filed in Salem Circuit Court said that Sheppard told a deputy he had shot a man in Salem 15 times. The warrant also said that Sheppard had more than 100 rounds of ammunition in his 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee when he was apprehended.

The shooting death was the culmination of mounting tensions between the two men.

Sheppard had been previously charged with assaulting Fleshman, who was seeing Sheppard's estranged wife. Sheppard had been separated from Melissa Sheppard for more than a year and the two filed for divorce in April.

Sheppard also had a 5-year-old daughter.

"We're all very disturbed that this individual chose to do this," Holt said. He said his thoughts are with Sheppard's family and added, "It's a traumatic situation for the deputies as well."