A former Durham police officer charged with murder in his wife's death died Friday at Rex Hospital.
Jail officials said Timothy W. Burns, died of a heart attack.
The Durham County Sheriff's Office said Burns was in custody at Central Prison when the decision was made to transport him to Rex Hospital in Raleigh.
He had been transferred from the Durham County Jail because his medical needs "were beyond [the jail's] capability to provide."
Burns was in police custody on a murder charge for stabbing his wife Maxine to death in November in their home.
Burns left the Durham Police Department in the 1990s
