Coroner: Inmate found dead in jail cell died of overdose

Published 7:13 am Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Adams County Coroner James Lee said a toxicology report performed on an inmate who died last month at the Adams County Correctional Center confirmed the inmate died of a drug overdose.

Lee said the toxicology report came back on Monday showing inmate Juan Carrillo Carreon, 35, died of an overdose of Xanax on May 27.

Lee said he was called to the correctional facility at approximately 12:15 p.m. May 27 and arrived to find Carreon deceased in the infirmary.

Subscribe to our free email newsletter

Get the latest news sent to your inbox

“They were making rounds and found him in the bunk and tried to administer CPR,” Lee said earlier this month. “They got him to the infirmary and tried to intubate him and called an ambulance, but he died.”

Lee said he saw no obvious signs of trauma and the inmate had only minor incidents in his medical history, so he sent Carreon’s body to the state crime lab in Jackson for an autopsy and a toxicology report.

A message left Monday afternoon with the administration at the Adams County Correctional Center seeking comment for this story was not returned Monday.

“It’s a sad day because the inmate wasn’t prescribed Xanax by a prison physician,” Lee said, “but he got them from somewhere. That’s a problem in the system.”

CoreCivic owns and operates the 2,232-bed facility that houses mostly prisoners who are illegal immigrants charged with re-entering the United States after deportation.

The facility has housed federal inmates through a contract with the U.S. Bureau of Prison since the prison opened approximately 10 years ago. The Bureau of Prisons recently announced it would not renew its contract with the prison which is set to expire July 31.