YOUNGSTOWN — Recently filed Mahoning County death certificates state that two inmates from the Ohio State Penitentiary and one at the Mahoning County jail died by suicide between Jan. 30 and April 4.

Mahoning County Coroner Dr. David Kennedy ruled each of the three to be suicides.

Anyone having thoughts of suicide is urged to call 988, which is the National Suicide and Crisis hot line; or 211, which is the Community Services Helpline.

Theresa Gaetano, chief investigator for Kennedy, said the three officially ruled deaths are a lot for the first seven months of the year, but there have been three other suicides this year that are not yet official — two at Youngstown’s other prison, the private Northeast Ohio Corrections Center on Hubbard Road; and one that occurred at the Trumbull County jail.

That inmate died at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, which is why it is a Mahoning County case.

Two other death are likely to be ruled overdoses at NEOCC, for a total of eight deaths this year among all facilities, which is also a high number, Gaetano said. By comparison, there were eight deaths at the three Mahoning County lockups in all of 2022, Gaetano said.

She does not know if there is a reason for the number of deaths this year to be high. “There is really no connection between any of them,” Gaetano said. There is no suspicion of wrongdoing in any of the eight deaths, she said.

DEATH

CERTIFICATES

The first of the three inmate deaths with official rulings was Jan. 30, when inmate Richard Dattilo, 44, was pronounced dead at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital after being brought there two days earlier from the Ohio State Penitentiary on Coitsville Hubbard Road, according to Dattilo’s death certificate.

His body was taken to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office, where an autopsy was done. Testing indicated he was negative for drugs. His manner of death was asphyxia, and he had abrasions around his neck.

The second was March 16, when Devin S. Kirtley, 34, of Berlin Center, was found dead in his prison cell at the Mahoning County jail.

Detective Anthony Murphy of the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office reported to a Mahoning County Coroner’s Office investigator that Kirtley was booked into the jail four days earlier on theft and assault on a police officer that allegedly occurred March 5, according to court records and a narrative with Kirtley’s death certificate.

Kirtley’s arraignment hearing in Mahoning County Area Court in Sebring was held earlier March 16. The narrative states that Kirtley placed a bed sheet over the door of his cell and told a deputy he wanted privacy while using the bathroom.

But when a deputy knocked on Kirtley’s door about 25 minutes later, Kirtley did not answer and the deputy found Kirtley dead. His cellmate had been in court all day, so Kirtley was alone in the cell, the report states.

A coroner’s investigator reported that Kirtley’s body had an abrasion around the neck. A family member indicated that Kirtley had been having mental health issues for about a year. An autopsy was performed by the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office. Toxicology results indicated that Kirtley tested positive for two types of drugs.

The third death was April 4, when Jessie O. McCroskey, 45, of Akron, was pronounced dead after being found unresponsive in the shower of his cell at the Ohio State Penitentiary. The shower was not visible from the cell door. He was taken by ambulance to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.

A prison investigator advised a coroner’s investigator that McCroskey was last seen alive by prison staff at 10:30 a.m. that day. He was found unresponsive at 10:39 a.m. The prison investigator stated that it’s possible McCroskey was not alive at 10:30 a.m. because items on his bed made it appear he was in bed.

McCroskey was alive when officers offered him breakfast at 5:45 a.m., the narrative with McCroskey’s death certificate states. The coroner’s investigator stated that McCroskey had abrasions around his neck.

erunyan@vindy.com