A 58-year-old Illinois man who had been sentenced to 10 years in prison for criminal sexual assault apparently hanged himself Wednesday night in a St. Clair County Jail cell. The inmate, Donald Wilson of Cahokia, hanged himself with a towel, Coroner Rick Stone said.

"He had no bruises or contusions to suggest any type of foul play," Stone added.

Wilson received a 10-year prison sentence Tuesday in St. Clair County Circuit Court in Belleville on a criminal sexual assault charge, Jail Superintendent T.J. Collins said.

Wilson had been at the jail since March 17 when he was transported there from Dixon Correctional Center. He had been paroled on another charge when he was brought to Belleville to stand trial in the criminal sexual assault case.

Wilson was found dead at 8:57 p.m. Wednesday by another inmate, according to Collins. Wilson apparently tied a towel through an upper bunk. He was sitting in an upright position.

"He was on his bottom bunk sitting with the towel around his neck," Collins said. "He had a long beard, and you couldn't see (the towel)."

Jail officials learned of his suicide when the inmate, newly assigned to the same cell, walked in. The inmate tried to talk to Wilson. When Wilson didn't respond, the man walked over to him and saw the towel wrapped around his neck.

Collins said the cell had been checked 32 minutes earlier but that Wilson could have been dead longer than that.

"In fact, the way he was sitting, they probably wouldn't have known," Collins said. "They couldn't see if he had anything on him."

The last jail hanging in the St. Clair County Jail was April 23, 2005, when Stanley Bell, 23, hanged himself.