Prison death of Johnson County sex offender is ruled a suicide

7-6-16 Kansas:

The death of a convicted Johnson County sex offender at the Lansing Correctional Center in March has been ruled a suicide.

Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson said Wednesday that there was no evidence of criminal activity in the March 14 death of Steven Paul Bradford.

There was also no evidence that anyone conspired to have Bradford hang himself, Thompson said.

Thompson made the announcement after reviewing a report by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

Bradford, 23, was serving a sentence of seven years and four months after he pleaded no contest to having sex with an 11-year-old girl in 2013. ..Source.. by Tony Rizzo

Inmate dies at Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility

4-26-2012 Mississippi:

Authorities say 21-year-old died of apparent suicide

WALNUT GROVE, Miss. - Mississippi corrections officials are investigating the death of an inmate at the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility.

The body of 21-year-old Dario Moore, of Bruce, was found Monday at the prison in central Mississippi. Corrections officials said Moore died of an apparent suicide but an investigation is continuing.

Mississippi Department of Corrections records show Moore was serving 10 years for sexual battery and burglary from Calhoun County. ..Source.. by WAPT.com

18-year-old inmate hangs self in Pulaski County Jail cell; had been held on rape charge

4-13-2012 Arkansas:

An 18-year-old inmate held on a rape charge at the Pulaski County Jail is dead after hanging himself in his cell.

A jailer delivering a food tray found Jeremy Hannibal of Little Rock hanging from his bed with a sheet around his neck shortly before 11 a.m.

The sheriff's department says jailers untied the sheet and tried to resuscitate Hannibal until an ambulance arrived, but Hannibal was dead.

Hannibal had been held since April 12 on a $25,000 bond. ..Source.. by KSPR.com

Mangum man found dead in Jackson County jail

3-24-2012 Oklahoma:

Investigators said Trent Davis hanged himself with a sock Thursday in a Jackson County jail cell. Davis, 19, of Mangum, was awaiting trial on a rape charge filed in 2011.

Trent Davis, 19, was found about 5:45 p.m. hanging from a commissary-issued sock that had been looped through a ventilation vent, Sheriff Roger Levick said.

Davis was alone in his cell, Levick said.

It is not clear exactly when Davis died because he was found hanging above the combined toilet and water fountain fixture — an area that is not covered by the cell's surveillance video, Levick said. Investigators will review additional video footage to make that determination, he said.

Levick said there was no indication Davis was depressed or suicidal.

Davis was charged in June with rape after a 13-year-old girl told police he assaulted and then forcibly raped her in his mother's pickup outside a party in Blair.

At the time, Davis was serving a five-year deferred sentence after pleading guilty in Greer County District Court in 2010 to a felony manslaughter charge for his role in the death of a 13-year-old Mangum girl.

Levick said the body was sent to the medical examiner's office for evaluation.

The state jail inspector's office and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation will investigate the death, he said. ..Source.. by Zeke Campfield

Georgia man who admitted murdering girl found dead in apparent suicide

1-19-2012 Georgia:

Atlanta (CNN) -- Ryan Brunn, the man who this week was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to murdering a Georgia girl, apparently killed himself in his prison cell Thursday, a corrections spokeswoman said.

Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Kristen Stancil said that Brunn was found unresponsive at 4:15 p.m. in his cell at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson. Brunn was pronounced dead at a hospital at 5:37 p.m. due to an apparent suicide, she said.

The case since has been referred to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, according to Stancil.

Brunn had entered a guilty plea Tuesday at a hearing in a Cherokee County courthouse, during which he described in detail how he enticed, molested and killed 7-year-old Jorelys Rivera. He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole, avoiding a potential death sentence by lethal injection.

Man found dead in jail cell

12-23-2010 Nevada:

A man awaiting trial on sexual assault charges was found dead in his jail cell on Wednesday night.

Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said Rodrigo Enrique Romero, 20, who pleaded not guilty earlier this week to sexual assault, kidnapping, destruction of property and battery with intent to commit sexual assault, was found in a segregated cell about 7:30 p.m. unconscious with part of a sheet around his neck. The other end of the sheet was attached to the bed, said Furlong.

Jail staff and paramedics tried unsuccessfully to revive Romero.

Furlong said according to the preliminary investigation, Romero was last seen alive by detention staff some 15 minutes before he was found unresponsive.

He said Romero had been having issues with other inmates which was why he was in a segregated cell.

In addition to being held on $50,000 bail, Romero had an immigration hold on him because his status in the country was questionable, said Furlong.

Romero has been in custody since his arrest Nov. 23 for the Nov. 21 rape of a woman outside a downtown bar.

According to the arrest report, Romero allegedly dragged the 21-year-old woman down a darkened stairwell at the corner of East Proctor and Plaza streets about 3 a.m. and raped her. The assault was interrupted by passersby who heard the woman screaming. The assailant then fled.

Surveillance video at a nearby casino offered police a photograph to show bar patrons, and some identified the fleeing rape suspect as Romero. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and a trial was set to begin on Feb. 22.

Furlong said the death is under investigation. ..Source.. by NevadaAppeal.com

Local teen commits suicide in prison

3-20-2010 New York:

A Hudson Falls teen who was serving a prison sentence for child sexual abuse hanged himself Friday in a state prison in Dutchess County, officials said.

Adam D. Wheeler's death came just weeks after he was paroled from state prison, but he was sent back because he didn't find a "suitable" residence after he was paroled, officials said.

Wheeler, 19, died at Downstate Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in Fishkill, where he was being held in recent weeks on a 2007 conviction for first-degree sexual abuse.

He was sentenced to 3 years in prison and 5 years on parole in that case, and was paroled in December.

But according to the state Division of Parole, he was charged with violating his parole because he did not find a residence that his parole officer approved of.

Carol Weaver, a spokeswoman for the Division of Parole, said the agency was working with the Washington County Department of Social Services to find some place for Wheeler to live, but parole officials did not believe he was cooperating with them.

He was returned to prison on Feb. 9, and would not have been eligible for release again until December.

Linda Foglia, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Correctional Services, acknowledged Wheeler's death occurred in Downstate Correctional Facility, but said she could not disclose the cause of death because of privacy rules.

INMATE SUICIDE INVESTIGATED BY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

8-29-2010 Colorado:

On Sunday August 29, 2010 at about 10:10 A.M., while conducting rounds and cell inspections of the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office Detention Facility, deputies discovered an inmate who had hanged himself by wrapping a bed sheet around his neck. Forty minutes prior to the discovery of the suspected suicide, the inmate was observed by other inmates to be functioning within the general inmate population. The inmate is identified as Jeffrey Wayne Purcella, Age 21.

Mr. Purcella was alone in his assigned cell at the time of the incident. Detentions Deputies immediately rendered aid to Mr. Purcella, to include CPR. Mr. Purcella was treated on the scene by paramedics of the South Metro Fire District and transported to the Sky Ridge Medical Center. While being treated at the Sky Ridge Medical Center Emergency Room, Mr. Purcella, passed away and was determined to be deceased at 11:03 A.M. on August 29, 2010.

Mr. Purcella was being held at the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office Detention Facility since March 3, 2008 on a $50,000.00 bond regarding allegations of Second Degree Kidnapping, Sexual Assault and Third Degree Assault.

The investigation into the apparent suicide death is continuing. ..Source.. by Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office

UT- Prison investigating death of inmate

10-1-12008 Utah:

UTAH STATE PRISON — Authorities are investigating the death of a 23-year-old inmate in their maximum security housing complex here.

The inmate was found hanging in his cell during a bed count late Tuesday night and flown by medical helicopter to University of Utah Hospital. He died Wednesday morning, said Utah Department of Corrections spokeswoman Angie Welling.

The death is believed to be a suicide, Welling said.

"Our corrections staff is trained to try to identify these issues and prevent them as much as possible," she said Wednesday. "It is unfortunate and our hearts go out to his family."

The inmate was serving time for second-degree felony forcible sex abuse charges, corrections officials said. ..News Source.. by Ben Wilson, Desert News

OH- Prison suicides prompt review

6-28-2004 Ohio:

COLUMBUS - Three Ohio prison inmates killed themselves in a seven-day period, putting the prison system on pace for a record number this year and prompting a review of suicide prevention policies statewide.

"We want to see if there are any commonalities between the incidents," prison system spokeswoman Andrea Dean said. She said officials believe, after an initial review, that there was no common thread in the inmate deaths.

....[SNIP]....

Thomas L. Brewer, 23, of Clermont County, died June 20 at the Ross Correctional Institutional at Chillicothe. Brewer entered prison June 8, 2000, on an attempted rape charge. He was to be released May 23, 2008.

Brewer had been on suicide watch, but was sent to an isolation cell where he hanged himself. ..more.. by AP