By MARK TODD - Staff Writer - mtodd@starbeacon.com
JEFFERSON — An Ashtabula County Jail inmate reportedly hanged himself early Thursday morning, officials said.
Sean C. O’Toole, 41, of Lakewood, was pronounced dead in the jail at 5:35 a.m., according to Richard Mongell, chief investigator for the Ashtabula County Coroner’s Office.
“He was found hanging from a bedsheet,” Mongell said.
The death appears to be suicide, but investigators will know more once preliminary results from the autopsy are received and studied, Mongell said.
Sheriff William Johnson informed the Star Beacon about the inmate’s death but declined to share details, including the dead man’s name. Johnson did say the inmate was one of the federal prisoners housed at the jail and no foul play was involved.
“He had been here quite awhile,” Johnson said.
A corrections officer found the man, he said.
The county is paid to house federal prisoners. The U.S. Marshal’s Service, which oversees federal inmates, has been notified, Johnson said. A spokesman at the Marshal’s office in Cleveland said Friday the agency would have no comment on the death. An investigation, aided by the FBI, is under way, the spokesman said.
