Sheriff unsure how inmate overdosed in jail

The awesome addictive power of heroin drove Daniel Davis to murder, an act that led prosecutors to seek to have Davis put to death.

That same addiction then took Davis' life Sept. 24 when he overdosed on heroin while in the Hamilton County Justice Center. Now, jail officials say they don't know how Davis got heroin while in jail and are frustrated because it was that jail's second inmate death caused by a heroin overdose in the last 18 months.

"They're drug addicts. They're desperate," Sheriff's Office Maj. Charmaine McGuffey, who runs the jail, Thursday.

"You would be amazed at the things they do to get that drug to begin with and then the things they do to get that drug inside the jail when they know they're going to be incarcerated."

One thing they do is put heroin in balloons and swallow them, either knowing they are going to jail or then get arrested on purpose. Once behind bars, they can expel the balloons and sell the heroin to other inmates.

"When that happens, they have (inmate) customers waiting for the product," Schoonover said.

A $250,000 body scanner, that essentially acts as an X-ray machine, is used when inmates enter the jail, but deputies don't always see the balloons in inmates' bodies. A lethal dose can be held in a restaurant sugar packet.

"You're not always going to be able to detect that," Chief Deputy Mark Schoonover said.

They've arranged for deputies to receive additional training from the Coroner's Office to be able to better delineate shadows inside body cavities or stomachs and packets of drugs.

They don't believe Davis committed a suicide.

"Most likely, he purchased that ... from another inmate who brought it in the jail," McGuffey said, noting Davis was in a cell by himself but had access to other inmates in his pod.

They insist their investigation after Davis' death found no evidence that a deputy sold, provided or helped provide Davis with the deadly drug.

They had "no even one moment's suspicion" of deputies guilt, Schoonover said.

The Sheriff's is doing much to keep drugs out. They have unannounced sweeps by deputies and police drug dogs but the times they find drugs "are few and far between," McGuffey said.

They will start better searching – maybe strip-searching – inmates when they return from the courthouse for a hearing to jail.

It's frustrating, Schoonover said, because it's heart-breaking to have an inmate under their control die in custody, not know how the drugs got in the jail and, despite lots of hard work to try, can't stop it completely.

"We have no leads," Schoonover said. "If I could pinpoint how these drugs are getting in, I would stop that.

"This agency has taken every measure that we believe we possibly can to deter and stop what's happening."

Davis, 50, was convicted in September of murder for beating, stomping and stabbing to death 79-year-old John "Jack" Lauck to get money to support Davis' heroin addiction. Davis did odd jobs at Lauck's East Price Hill home in 2012. Prosecutors said Lauck caught him stealing, so Davis killed Lauck. Prosecutors sought the death penalty against Davis, but he was given life in prison instead.

Davis was awaiting transfer to prison but had to remain in Hamilton County to answer to a burglary charge. The day before that case was to be in court, Davis took a lethal amount of heroin while in the jail and died.

Another inmate, James Barton, died of a heroin overdose inside the jail in June 2013.

"It's a societal issue," McGuffey said. "It shines a light on what this heroin epidemic is doing to each and every one of us."