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Inmate autopsy indicates suicide

Hernando County Jail inmate Daniel Ray Warren's body bore no signs of homicide or of rape, says a state medical examiner

By JONATHAN ABEL
Published December 15, 2005

Inmates in the Hernando County Jail say that Daniel Ray Warren was raped in the days before he died Nov. 2. On Wednesday, the state medical examiner said otherwise.

Dr. Julia Martin, the pathologist who performed Warren's autopsy, said that Warren's death had been caused by suicidal hanging and that there were no signs he had been raped or sodomized with a broom handle.

"That's a definitive, pathological conclusion," she said. "There were no signs of trauma grossly or microscopically."

Martin ruled the death a suicide by the marks on Warren's neck.

"Typically, in suicidal hanging it's at an angular cant - that's an angular orientation (of the marks)," she said. "It's more horizontal in homicidal hanging, typically."

The autopsy results were released just days after the Times published accounts of inmates who told jail officials that the 39-year-old shrimp boat captain had been raped and beaten during his seven days at the Hernando County Jail, which is operated by Corrections Corporation of America. Warren was awaiting transfer to state prison after pleading guilty to a charge of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

Jail documents and surveillance video show that Warren suffered physical abuse from fellow inmates during his stay at the jail. The documents also contain written and oral statements from inmates saying that Warren was raped and poked with a broomstick.

Attorney Peyton Hyslop, who is looking into Warren's death, said that he had heard that another inmate was in the cell with Warren at the time he died. But CCA officials say Warren was alone in the cell and hanged himself.

Jail spokeswoman Cathie Sullivan said Wednesday that the medical examiner's conclusions confirmed the jail's earlier findings "that this appeared to be a suicide."

The official cause of death - whether suicide or homicide - has not yet been determined by the Hernando County Sheriff's Office. The Sheriff's Office is still investigating Warren's death and the "alleged offenses" leading up to it, said spokeswoman Deputy Donna L. Black.

The medical examiner's report did not satisfy Warren's family.

His mother, Sue Coleman, said that she had already arranged for a private medical examiner to look over the report.

"If Danny wasn't raped, I am very glad of that, but they still can't convince me that my son committed suicide. Anyone could have walked in there and done that (to him)," Coleman said. "I know my son got beat up there really bad. I want to know why. Whoever did this to him, I want him prosecuted."

Jonathan Abel can be reached at jabel@sptimes.com or 352 754-6114.

[Last modified December 15, 2005, 00:33:15]