Daniel R. Warren, a Florida shrimp boat captain, had been sentenced to three years in state prison for battering his wife. But he never made it there. In his sixth day awaiting transfer from the Hernando County Jail, he died after apparently hanging himself in his cell. About 1 p.m. Wednesday, Warren, 39, lost two front teeth in a fight with two or three other inmates at the jail. About 5 p.m., after Warren was transferred to a segregated cell, he was found by a corrections officer and an inmate as they were delivering dinner.
According to a Hernando County sheriff's report, Warren was sitting on the floor, not breathing, a sheet fastened around his neck, and his hands turning blue. Corrections officers tried to hold up the body as they untied the sheet. He was taken to Brooksville Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
All preliminary indications point to suicide, said Deputy Donna Black, spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office, though the official cause of death awaits an autopsy report.
Cathie Sullivan, spokeswoman for the county jail, which is operated by Corrections Corporation of America, said results of an internal investigation would likely be reported to the county today.
The last time someone committed suicide at the Hernando jail was in 2002, when Laren Sims Jordan hanged herself. An internal investigation cleared jail employees in that case.
The events leading up to Warren's incarceration and death began on July 8, when authorities say he attacked his wife at their home on Baltimore Street, north of Weeki Wachee.
Warren had recently pleaded guilty on to aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and witness tampering in connection with that case.
According to a sheriff's report, Warren and his wife, Angela Warren, were arguing about money problems when Daniel Warren turned violent. The report says he struck his wife with his fists and feet before getting a wooden stake from another room and attacking her.
"I had a broken arm completely in two, eight broken ribs, cheek was glued and swelled shut," Angela Warren said.
Warren's family and friends complained of neglect on the part of both the jail and the justice system.
Warren was a victim of Hurricane Wilma and the Public Defender's Office, said Warren's best friend, Glen Matthews, who spoke as an intermediary for Warren's mother. When Wilma caused court to be canceled in Hernando a week ago Monday, Warren's court date was postponed but was not informed of the postponement.
When Warren and his attorney went before the judge, the public defender was so unfamiliar with the case that Warren wanted a continuance, Matthews said. But the judge would not grant one because the state had to make special arrangements for Angela Warren to come down from Ohio to testify, Matthews said.
Though Warren pleaded guilty to aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and witness tampering - for smashing the phone as his wife tried to dial 911 - he was forced into the plea by circumstances, Matthews said.