2 inmates in Ohio county jail found dead in 12-hour period

CLEVELAND (AP) — Two inmates died within 12 hours this week at a county jail east of Cleveland, and one of the deaths may have been caused by a drug overdose, authorities said today.

Lake County sheriff’s officials said guards found a 25-year-old man lying on the floor of his cell around 5:30 p.m. Monday, and he was pronounced dead at a hospital. Sheriff Dan Dunlap said there were no bruises or signs of violence on the body of the man, who was jailed Dec. 15 after violating a no-contact order stemming from a domestic violence arrest.

“There’s nothing to indicate that there was foul play involved with his death,” Dunlap said.

Twelve hours later, two women were discovered unconscious in separate cells, the sheriff said. Guards administered Narcan, a drug that can reverse heroin and other opiate overdoses, to a 30-year-old woman who responded to the treatment and was taken to a hospital. Guards weren’t able to give the antidote, which is administered as an inhalant, to a 25-year-old woman because she’d stopped breathing. The Lake County coroner pronounced her dead at the jail in Painesville, which is about 30 miles east of Cleveland.

The Cuyahoga County medical examiner will determine how both inmates died. Dunlap wouldn’t release the inmates’ names.