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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