SEBASTIAN COUNTY (KFSM) – No criminal charges will be filed in connection with the death of a Sebastian County inmate from June, the Sebastian County prosecutor announced Monday.
Prosecutor Daniel Shue released a statement Monday saying there is no evidence a homicide occurred when rape suspect Marcus Tucker was found hanging by the neck from the sprinkler in his Sebastian County Detention Center cell in June. Tucker was later pronounced dead after being hospitalized.
Tucker was sharing the cell with an inmate named David Davis.
A jail deputy told investigators he checked on both inmates the morning of June 25 and saw nothing wrong. He later re-entered Tucker’s cell and found him hanging from the sprinkler above the toilet by a bedsheet. A suicide note was found in the cell that read, in part, “Didn’t no guard or inmate do this I Marcus Tucker did this to myself,” according to the prosecutor’s statement.
Tucker was immediately transported to Sparks Regional Medical Center in Fort Smith, where he was treated until June 27, when he was pronounced dead, according to the prosecutor.
A state medical examiner performed an autopsy two days later and determined the cause of death as complications from hanging. The medical examiner’s report also states a screening for marijuana came back positive on the body.
The prosecutor closed the statement by saying, “There is no direct or circumstantial evidence of homicide or any criminal act. Considering the totality of the circumstances and the applicable law, no criminal offense has been committed.”
