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Jackson County inmate dies following head injuries
By Rose Hooper
An inmate who collapsed at the Jackson County Detention Center Sunday (May 9) died the next day at Mission Hospitals in Asheville.
Bobby Eugene Wallen Jr., 48, of Coachman Lane, Tuckasegee, died one day after being admitted to the hospital’s neuro-trauma center.
According to Jackson County Sheriff Jimmy Ashe, Wallen had been in the detention center less than 30 minutes when the incident occurred.
“Mr. Wallen was irate when we brought him in, and we placed him under constant observation,” said Ashe. “He was standing at the door to the cell blocks when he turned and walked away. We heard a thump; he had fallen.
“He fell straight down, hitting the floor with his head. Apparently he just collapsed, or blacked out,” Ashe said.
Wallen arrived at the detention center via Harris Regional Hospital’s emergency room, where he tested positive for drugs, said Ashe, who declined to specify which drugs.
While at the ER Wallen broke a glass door with a concrete ash tray, according to Sylva Police Chief Jeff Jamison. Sylva Police charged Wallen with misdemeanor damage to real property.
The emergency room doctors signed a ‘fit for confinement’ form and at 12:39 a.m. Sunday Wallen was admitted to the jail, where he was placed in a one-person observation cell, Ashe said.
It was 12:52 a.m. when jailers called for an ambulance. This time Wallen was transported to Mission Hospitals, where he later died.
Ashe said law enforcement personnel’s encounter this weekend with Wallen began Saturday when his deputies, along with Emergency Medical Service personnel, responded to a drug overdose call at a Pinhook Valley residence.
Wallen, the subject in question, fled the residence on foot and was not found.
Deputies and EMTs left the home but were called back an hour later when Wallen returned, according to Ashe. Wallen was then transported by ambulance to HRH and subsequently to the jail.
While Wallen was at Mission Hospitals, his $1,000 bond had been posted, releasing him from Sheriff’s Office custody, Ashe said.
“Due to the circumstances, we have requested that the State Bureau of Investigation review the case,” said Ashe, who will turn over surveillance videotapes to the SBI.
Wallen’s body was to have been sent Wednesday ( May 12) to the state medical examiner’s office for an autopsy.
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