Inmate awaiting trial for sexual battery commits suicide

A DeLand man, who court records show was awaiting trial for sexual battery, hanged himself in his jail cell over the weekend, a Volusia sheriff's spokesman said.

Robert Lee Jones, 32, was discovered by a corrections officer around 11:55 p.m. Saturday hanging by a bed sheet in his cell, said sheriff's spokesman Andrew Gant.

Officers performed CPR on Jones until an EVAC ambulance arrived and transported Jones to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach. Jones later died at the hospital around 1:05 a.m., Gant said.

"There were no suspicious circumstances or indications of foul play at the scene," Gant said. "Jones' death appeared to be the result of suicide."

Court records show that Jones was arrested on June 16, 2017 and charged with two counts of sexual battery on a person less than 12 years of age, capital felonies, and lewd and lascivious molestation by a person 18 years of age or older on a victim less than 12 years of age.

Records show that Jones' public defender lawyer got a court continuance for Jones on Friday, whose pretrial was then set for Feb. 27 with a trial date of March 19 before Circuit Judge James R. Clayton.

Suicide has been the leading cause of death in local and state jails every year since 2000, according to reports from the U.S. Department of Justice.

In 2013, one-third of all jail inmate deaths were attributed to suicide, according to the most recent study by the U.S. Department of Justice. That same study found that from 2009 to 2014, the suicide rate increased 22 percent, up from 35 per 100,000 local jail inmates to 45 per 100,000 local jail inmates.

In 2016 there were three reported suicides at the Volusia County Branch Jail, prompting county officials to spend $15,000 to bring in a national expert to evaluate and suggest improvements to prevent the practice.

Though the county corrections director, Mark Flowers, said the goal for 2017 was zero suicides, two were reported, one each in March and September, according to News-Journal reports.

Jones is the only jail suicide reported for 2018 so far.