On Tuesday, February 13, 2018, Guy Anthony Copous Jr. was arrested and placed in the Harrison County Jail in Gulfport, Mississippi. According to Sheriff Troy Peterson, two days later, on February 15, Copous committed suicide in the jail. Details of the alleged suicide have not been released, and Peterson said they won’t be until an investigation into the custodial death has been completed. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, the District Attorney’s office, and the sheriff’s office will be investigating the death.
At another Mississippi jail, it was reported that 51-year-old Robert Johnson, a prisoner, was found dead in an observation cell. The cause of death was believed to be strangulation with a shoestring. At the time Johnson’s death occurred on January 9, 2018, in Kemper-Neshoba Correctional Facility in De Kalb, an investigation was instigated. It was suspected that the cause of death was suicide, but that has not been confirmed. Authorities at the jail were aware that Johnson’s most recent previous address was at the East Mississippi State Hospital, where it is believed he was treated for mental illness.
Another recent custodial death of a prisoner in a Mississippi jail occurred on September 6, 2017. Twenty-nine-year-old Bridget Marlar had been jailed at Alcorn County Jail in Corinth. After being in the jail for approximately three days, she was found unresponsive in her cell on August 27. She was transported to nearby Magnolia Regional Health Center, which is where she died the following month.
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