CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland felon, sentenced to 248 years in prison for the beating and robbery of a beloved bike shop owner, is a suspect in the slaying of an inmate at the Grafton Correctional Institution, The Plain Dealer has learned.

David Worley, 58, was transferred from the Grafton prison to the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville a day after the attack on Gerald Pierce on Dec. 1, according to state prison records. Pierce suffered severe head injuries after being struck with a blunt object, Lorain County Coroner Stephen Evans said.

Worley has not been charged. A spokeswoman for the Ohio State Highway Patrol, which investigates crimes at the state's prisons, said troopers are awaiting lab results.

The state patrol has refused to release the suspect's name. The Plain Dealer reported the details of Pierce's attack within days of his death. At the time, a prison spokeswoman said the person accused in the attack was from Cleveland and had been transferred to the prison in Lucasville.

The newspaper, citing the state public records law, requested the names of all inmates transferred from the Grafton prison to the Lucasville facility from Nov. 15 through Dec. 9. The prison system responded with only one name: Worley's, and he had been transferred Dec. 2.

A document from the Lucasville prison shows Worley was one of several inmates "who were immediately transferred here due to serious disciplinary issues.'' An administrative rule cited in documents indicates the transfer stemmed from "violent, assaultive or predatory behavior.''

Worley was sentenced in 2006 for beating and robbing Ken Schneider, who owned Schneider's Bike Shop on Lorain Avenue. The shop had been a landmark on the West Side since shortly after World War II. Ken Schneider took over his dad's business long ago and kept it going while others in the area had moved or closed up.

On March 21, 2006, Worley, who authorities say was high on crack cocaine, walked into the tiny business and found Schneider working alone.

When Schneider realized that it was a robbery, he squirted pepper spray into Worley's face and ran. Worley, however, caught up with him. He then used one of the bike shop's hammers to beat Schneider into unconsciousness. Schneider suffered a fractured skull and broken jaw.

Police arrested Worley days later. The robbery was one of several Worley committed against Schneider. Worley pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery, attempted murder and other crimes. Based on his criminal past, which involved spending much of his life behind bars, then-Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Bridget McCafferty sentenced him to consecutive terms in prison.

“The court can come to no other conclusion than that you need to spend the remainder of your life in prison,” McCafferty told Worley in June 2006.

Schneider, who began working in his father's shop when he was 12, retired after the attack. His son, Ken, ran the shop for a few years before the family closed the business.

Attempts to reach Worley's family were unsuccessful.

Pierce, the victim in the prison slaying, was convicted in 1990 of aggravated murder and aggravated robbery in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. A judge sentenced him to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 33 years.

He was accused of killing Tim Weybrecht, 34, of Woburn Avenue on Oct. 19, 1989. Prosecutors said at the time that Pierce lured Weybrecht to an alley off West 25th Street, near Trowbridge Avenue.

Plain Dealer news researcher Jo Ellen Corrigan contributed to this story.