Officials investigate 2 inmate deaths in Mississippi jails
Published 9:39 am Monday, March 18, 2019
COLUMBUS (AP) — Mississippi state police are investigating the deaths of two inmates in separate jails.
News outlets reported 26-year-old Jefferson Russell Finch died early Friday at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Columbus.
Lowndes County officers found Finch unresponsive in his cell around 5 p.m. Thursday. Coroner Greg Merchant said it appears Finch tried to hang himself. He had been convicted on a methamphetamine charge and was awaiting transfer to state prison.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is reviewing the death.
The agency is also looking at the death of 54-year-old Dale Jerome O’Neal in his cell at the Clay County jail in West Point around 8 a.m. Friday.
O’Neal’s cause of death is pending autopsy results. West Point police arrested him March 8 on charges of trespassing and failure to appear in court.