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Inmate Dies In Escambia County Jail
November 19, 2015
An inmate died at the Escambia County Main Jail after being found unresponsive Wednesday from an apparent medical condition. Escambia County Corrections medical personnel discovered 21-year old Samuel Devon Averheart unresponsive in the infirmary unit and called emergency medical services at 3 a.m. with crews arriving on scene at 3:09 a.m. He was pronounced dead at 3:23 a.m.
Averheart was arrested on Tuesday, November 10, charged with felony violation of probation and held without bond. He was moved to the infirmary on Tuesday, November 17 after being evaluated, treated and released on the same day by a physician at a local hospital for a medical condition. Jail records show he was housed alone and checked every hour by medical staff since being released back into custody, according to a statement by Escambia County, which operates the jail.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office is investigating.
Comments
23 Responses to “Inmate Dies In Escambia County Jail”
They knew Sam was sick and ignored it. He did inform them of his sickness and they dismissed it. He should have been taken to the hospital if the doctor was not available to treat him. It doesn’t matter why he was there or his lifestyle. He is a human being who deserves the same as anyone. R.I.P Sam. You were a nice young man who deserved better than that.You were always looking out for others. When it came time you needed help they ignored you. Seriously a sad excuse for ignoring a human being in need.
@tessy
Apparently you haven’t worked at Escambia County Jail. If you have, it’s been 10 years or better. The only glass then was the 4 suicide cells directly across from the officers station, two half glass cells flanking that station, and two half glass flanking the nurses station. The outside windows are now covered to prevent seeing outside and all cells are steel doored with a 12″x12″ glass thats 5 1/2′ high.
The only time an inmate even sees a nurse is if they receive medicine in the morning or evening. Even officers were required to sign a sheet hourly ( 15 or 30 min for suicide watch). At first it was done properly. Then it went to just keeping the papers in their station and signing them there. Now i don’t think they do it at all.
The jail is a joke. Yea most inmates are animals but some are there for no reason and some because they wanna be. If someone is sick they should be treated, animals included.
The County not the Sheriff runs the jail thanks to Gene Valentino and George Touart! Neither one is around to be held accountable for their gross negligence! The jail’s medical since turning over to the county has gone drastically downhill and will be contracted out soon at great cost to the county! The county does not have the competence to run the jail medical evidenced by six thats right 6 deaths in 12 months. When you try to run the jail as cheap as you can the deaths will happen! Look it has been 18 months and they still haven’t torn down the old jail and started construction on the new one. Over 500,000 a month being paid to other counties to house out inmate! This is a complete self inflicted disaster! Every death all we hear is we are going to do more training-really! Time for a leadership change at the jail before it is too late!
Check every hour by med staff? The COs do the checks, not nurses. They aint got near enough nurses to go in an check all those in the infirmary every hour. Heck, whats going on elsewhere when the officers are doing all those checks?
Also the infirmary units are made with glass walls. Everyone can see in there just by walking by. He was not left in a “block box with no windows or door”.
I have worked in the jail setting, the majority of people that have been arrested and placed into those cells were not put their because they lived their lives right and were overly health conscious. Most are on some sort of illegal drugs and have not had medical care for years. Its easy to blame someone else for our loved ones mistakes, but really….if you die in a room all alone it is most likely not your location that causes your death. Condolences to the family of this young man, but there is no need to play the blame game.
Really traumaqueen??? what is at issue is someone’s son was left in a block box with no windows; not even the door. Obviously no one checked on him. Maybe the
CNA (which is all the jail has there) peeked through the slit in the door and assumed the inmate was sleeping. I’m sure there was no contact. Otherwise they would have noticed he was unresponsive.
and yes, if the dogs at the pound were treated like the inmates….heads would roll !
They have broken the law and they desrve to be there. But they are treated like animals.
A VOP could be as simple as a faillure to pay what you owe when it’s due. It does not take much to violate a probation.
To the lady stated she was waiting on her grandson to be released, my daughter put some very costly books for me to pick up, th . Guard said she took them her self down for me to pick, they disappeared, and the women in the caged area is very hateful, I letter 8.00. Worth of lip medicine with her and when the nurse went to plck it up it wasn’t there, so. She had to have took it for herself, I guess that’s where the books went, just saying, county needs to investigate the whole jail,
I can very well understand this man dying. Abou I I months ago, I had a relative released by the court and I was told to go over to jail and pick him up. I did just tat and after finding the jail (not living in Pensacola area), going to several blogs, I found and went in and the lady at the cage there told me (after I told her I was coming for) that it would be some time for him to be processed for me to go someplace and call back in a couple hours. I did just that and after calling two-thee hours I made my way back over to jail. I had left my grandson’s name and asked her the first time I went to jail if she would get my cell phone number to him to call when he was ready. About dark I went back to jail,sat in waiting room got about an hour with no one working at the counter. I am 82 years old so I got tired and went outside and sat in my car, I fell asleep and about 2 AM I awoke,went back in the jail and sat for another long period of time. After about another hour there appeared three deputies,two ladies and one man and asked if they could help me and I told them who I was waiting on and he had not called me, they got on their phone and informed me he had been released, I was furious. They knew that and followed me to my car in the dark parking lot. They said he was probably walking. I drove up to the nearest all night restaurant,got out and was going to get coffee to drink on my way home which was about 50 miles away. My greandson was in there trying to use a person’s phone to call home to get a ride. He was so happy and said he was NEVER TOLD I was there and left a cell number. There is no telling how long this young man suffered before dying. The Sherriff’s Dept needs overhauling for these things to happen..Like I said before, I am 82 years old and could have been mugged right there in the jail waiting area or in that dark parking lot!!!!!!!
I have been in same place as this guy( yea) they did a walk by it’s like this the old saying is it’s easy to get in an hard to get out don’t matter if your guilty or not your still treated guilty in there just saying cause like I said I’ve been there an it’s no fun
I have no judgment one way or the other regarding this unfortunate man’s in demise. However, speaking from personal experience if you enter the jail on The weekend or late Friday night you Will not be evaluated by a physician until Monday. If you are taking vital medication such as heart meds, blood thinners, seizure meds, BP meds or insulin, you will not receive them until you are evaluated by a phycian on Monday- even if you bring your current prescription bottles with you. About three years ago my daughter had a grand mal seizure, blunt head trauma w/ a huge posterior hematoma in jail due to her anti- seizure medications being withheld for 3 days- despite her urgent pleas. Consequently, my “tough love” endeavor was aborted- I had to bail her out and get her to the ER for an immediate head CT (at taxpayers expense, I might add)- I don’t know what their policy is now- in regards to keeping a phycian available 7 days a week (even if it was via a remote Skype situation) but, it is the BEST safety practice.
R.I.P. SAM!!!
I’m curious if his health problems had anything to do with why he had the VOP ?
My heart goes out to to surviving love ones however chapter 406.11 #6 of the Florida statutes mandate’s that a autopsy be completed on anyone who dies in police custody so the autopsy will determine his cause of death and FYI the autopsy report is public record.
R.I.P SAM ….GULF BEACH HWY STAND UP!!!! SOUTH SIDE!!!
I am so tired of the mentality that everybody but the victim are to blame for everything wrong. The investigating agency will investigate and the truth will come out. After the jail is cleared of any wrong doing where will you people blaming them be? Will you apologize?
When will we blame people for their own actions? When do we stop blaming eveybody else for the things we’ve done? That is what is wrong with the world today..it is always somebody else’s fault. My mother..because i grew up without a father. Teachers..theyjust passed me through school instead of teaching me. My husband..he beat me and so on and so on.
Earlier this week two drug dealing thugs were killed and the conspiracy nuts and those defending the thugs swore up and down the victims weren’t drug dealers even though their records showed otherwise. Once the report came out low and behold no one was there to defend them anymore. Now some have now taken to backing the shooter. What is wrong with society when we no longer take responsibility for our own actions. That is the true injustice..bad people aren’t held accountable for their actions and are instead to blame everybody else instead. What is wrong with society that we now riot for stupid and liars!! Wake up society!! Eventually the truth comes out and you look stupid!!!
“coseys ex o”, You are correct, ESCO Sheriff does not run the jail
I don’t believe anything the escambia county. Jail says, they don’t watch. Inmates that close, there’s know telling hoiw long he was dead, and what really caused his death, look how many inmates has died lately, they need to really investigate, his death. My daughter was in there for 6months and did not receive the medical needs. She had, and there treated like animals.I mean. Good lord. Hope the right things are done.
Medical condition? Try drug addiction! Young kids these days don’t care what they put in their bodies. Long as it gets them some type of high. I rode by the jail tonight where people gathered and seen a sign “justice for Sam” really? Because the drug history and the lifestyle had nothing to do with his death.
I didn’t think the s/o was running the jail anymore. Didn’t the Board of commissioners take over those duties?
First, Fdle investigates cases so that the involved agency isn’t investigating itself. In this case, the sheriffs office is investigating the jail… They are not the same agency and so there is no conflict of interest.
Second, there is no sign that this is a murder.
Third, the clearance rate for homicides investigated by the Escambia sheriffs office is above the national average.
Deaths that occur in custody should be investigated by FDLE, right? This should especially be the case when the sheriff’s office has so many unsolved murders.
Rest in peace young man.