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| Man hangs himself in Georgia jail |
| By Athens Banner-Herald |
| Published: 08/13/2003 |
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A 50-year-old Colbert man was found dead in his Madison County, Ga., Jail cell Sunday morning, the victim of an apparent suicide only minutes after being spoken with by a pastor making his weekly visit ministering to prisoners. Richard Grantham, arrested hours earlier after a domestic dispute, killed himself by tying one end of a bed sheet around his neck, the other around the top bunk in his cell and then leaning forward to choke off his air supply, Madison County Sheriff Clayton Lowe said Monday. ''All indications are the guy killed himself,'' said Lowe, who added the death is being investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Grantham was last seen alive sometime between 9 and 9:30 a.m., Lowe said, by a pastor from a Danielsville church who makes weekly Sunday morning visits to prisoners. After briefly speaking with Grantham the pastor moved on to another cell, and when the pastor passed by Grantham's cell about five minutes later, ''he went and got the jailer, saying there's something around his neck,'' Lowe said. The jailer immediately cut Grantham down, but it was too late. Grantham was pronounced dead at the scene, and his body was taken to the GBI State Crime Lab in Decatur for an autopsy, according to Lowe. Two inmates with whom Grantham was sharing the cell had been asleep during the apparent suicide, Lowe said. Grantham was arrested shortly after midnight Sunday on charges of aggravated assault, aggravated battery and false imprisonment from a domestic dispute with his girlfriend at the home they shared on Lem Edwards Road. Lowe said Grantham had beaten the woman so severely she was placed in intensive care at a local hospital. During the booking process at Madison County Jail, Grantham spent about 15 minutes with a jail nurse, Lowe said, who ''asked him the normal questions, like do you want to kill yourself, but there were no indication he had anything like that on his mind.'' The weekend domestic violence incident was not the first that brought Grantham to the attention of authorities. In May, Athens-Clarke police arrested him after he allegedly threatened to kill an Athens woman and then holed himself up in the home of another Athens woman. Grantham's apparent suicide is the first successful suicide attempt of an inmate in the custody of the Madison County Sheriff's Office since Lowe took office in 1996. |
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