A 55-year-old Cook County Jail inmate convicted of the sexual assault of a 13-year-old 10 years ago died Wednesday morning after apparently hitting his head in a jail cell, authorities said.
Ronald Spencer was pronounced dead at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County at 8:35 a.m., according to a Cook County Medical Examiner’s office spokesman, who said
Spencer suffered apparent head trauma.
An autopsy Thursday was inconclusive, pending further investigation, and a cause of death was not determined, the medical examiner’s office said.
Spencer was convicted of sexually assaulting of a 13-year-old when he was 45, according to the Illinois Sex Offender Registry. Cook County Sheriff's spokesman Steve Patterson said Spencer was re-admitted into the jail on May 30 for failure to report a change of address on the registry and was being held on $500,000 bond.
Inmates in the maximum-security area where Spencer was being held told a corrections officer that
he was “in distress” and was unconscious on the floor of his cell. Corrections officers called paramedics after they found him lying next to his bed unconscious, Patterson said.
The paramedics were able to revive him and take him to the jail's Cermak Hospital. After he was stabilized, he was transferred to Stroger Hospital where he went into cardiac arrest about 90 minutes later, Patterson said.
Prior to his death, Spencer told investigators
he hit his head on a sink area near his bed, Patterson said.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks