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Christopher Lamont Lee
A Lynchburg jail inmate died in an apparent suicide Wednesday afternoon after jailers found him hanging in his cell.
Christopher Lamont Lee, 24, of Newark, N.J., died at Lynchburg General Hospital after jailers found him unresponsive around 5:15 p.m. during a routine check before dinner, said Elton Blackstock, administrator of the Blue Ridge Regional Jail Authority, which operates the Lynchburg Adult Detention Center on Ninth Street.
The authority issued a news release on the suicide Thursday.
It appears that Lee hanged himself, Blackstock said. He was unresponsive when jailers discovered him.
The jail’s staff immediately began performing CPR and used the automated external defibrillator to try to revive Lee, Blackstock said. He was pronounced dead at Lynchburg General Hospital at 6:01 p.m. Wednesday.
“The initial cause of death appears to be death by hanging,” Blackstock said.
It is the second suicide in the Lynchburg Adult Detention Center since the Blue Ridge Regional Jail Authority took it over in 1998.
There were about 560 inmates in the jail Thursday morning, Blackstock said. Each is checked on twice hourly. Lee was being held in an individual cell.
“They hadn’t found anything wrong,” Blackstock said. “Each check is documented.”
Blackstock added that the jailers had followed procedure in checking on Lee. However, those procedures are under review to see if any changes would prevent another suicide.
His body is being transported to the Roanoke Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy.
Lee was serving a two-year, seven-month sentence for a probation violation. He originally was convicted in September 2003 on a charge of arson of personal property. He was sentenced to three years in prison with all but three months suspended as well as one year and six months supervised probation.
In January 2005, he was charged with violating his probation but was not arrested until earlier this year, and the suspended portion of his sentence was imposed. He had been in the Blue Ridge Regional Jail facility since April 14.
“One (suicide) is too many,” Blackstock said. “We always review our policies to see if there is anything we can do better.”
The Lynchburg Police Department is investigating, which Blackstock said is routine in cases like this.
The first suicide at the facility happened in July 2000, when Norman “Dog” White was found hanging by a bed sheet in his maximum-security cell.
White had been convicted of murder, burglary and firearms charges and sentenced to life in prison plus another 28 years. He had hanged himself the day after his conviction.
Earlier this year, an inmate escaped from the same jail.
Larry Wayne Dodson Jr., 20, tied together bed sheets and managed to climb down them more than 100 feet to escape. He was found less than a month later in Georgia. He had been in the Lynchburg jail awaiting transfer to a Virginia Department of Corrections prison to serve a seven-year, four-month sentence on larceny and firearms charges.
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Reader Reactions
This is my little brother; I was told it was a belt by BLACKSTOCK, then the next day it was a linen cloth. My mother and I didn’t even know he was there until July the first, after he was killed by the correction officer and/or inmate. William Lynch was one of the millions that use the revisions of the Bible(King James himself, not God’s Prophets)as excuses to do evil to the very children of The Creator..still to this day. Lynchburg was referred to as the seat of SATAN in history (look it up)because it had no churches and was not acceptable to worship of God. And thats where my brothers story starts!! I SLEEP ON THE FLOOR SO I WILL NEVER FALL OF THE BED!!! Only a true child of wisdom, God, will understand that. Peace. And pray for those responsible for the death of my lil bro.. SEE GOD.
I don’t know about the Lynchburg jail, but the one in Amherst has cameras on the inmates at all times, from intake, into the cells, in the rec. room. Not to say that there is not room for error, but it seems to me that something isn’t right at the Lynchburg jail. If he was checked on twice within an hour, I am wondering when and how he had time to hang himself. I doubt he was checked that often. They just recently had an escape from there so there HAS to be a lax security gurading the inmates. Yes, this man was in jail, he did a crime and was being punished, but I doubt he was being treated humanely, it seems prisoners are treated very badly and although they are criminals, they are also people. So you have to draw a fine line when dealing with them. I think this jail and the police department need an outside source to investigate them, but I relazie it would be hard to find a partial, balanced investigative team to do it, since most cops stick together and don’t want to rock the boat even when they know something stinks like this and the escape does!!!
Escape? Now suicide? What is going on at Lynchburg jail? I spent a short time in the Campbell Co. Adult Detention Center that is also run by the Blue Ridge Regional Jail Authority. Every single inmate that I spoke to that was transferred from Lynchburg told of how very bad the conditions were there. Maybe it would be a good idea to have the Virginia Dept. of Corrections or the U.S.Department of Justice do an investigation. Someone with a loved one in that facility needs to make some phone calls.
LPD investigating a death in the Blue Ridge Jail is like asking Bernie Madoff to audit his financial records (Like asking LPD officer T. Willams to investigate another officer). IWC: be stong and good luck to you.
My birth mother commited suicide by hanging in the Lynchburg city jail system on 07.19.96. I am saddened to see this story having repeated itself.
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