MIAMI (CBSMiami) — The death of a mentally ill inmate thrown into a hot shower at Dade Correctional Institution has been ruled accidental, sources told our news partners at the Miami Herald.
The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s autopsy report, completed this week, concludes Darren Rainey died of schizophrenia, heart disease and “confinement” back in 2012, sources told the paper.
The report states the 50-year old did not suffer any burns on his body. It also says investigators also could not conclude the specially rigged shower was “excessively” hot the day he collapsed.
But inmate Harold Hempstead claims he heard Rainey screaming in pain in that shower. This week CBS4’s Chief Investigative Reporter Michele Gillen brought his story to light.
Hempstead is credited with sounding the alarm over Rainey’s death.
“He goes into the shower and what do you begin to hear? Tell me the words that you heard?” Gillen asked Hempstead in the rare television interview.
“It takes about a minute for the shower to get full hot, so once it’s on full hot he started yelling ‘Get me out of here, get me out of here’ and kept kicking the door and kicking the door. He continued to yell ‘It’s hot, get me out of here’ and was kicking and kicking and kicking,” reflected Hempstead. He told Gillen those screams haunt him.
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