Downstate prison inmate death ruled a suicide

  

January 9, 2013 (SPRINGFIELD, Ill.) -- A coroner has determined an Illinois prison inmate's death Tuesday was a suicide.

Montgomery County Coroner Rick Broaddus said Wednesday that 26-year-old Christopher G. Nichol hanged himself with a bedsheet at Graham Correctional Center in Hillsboro.

Broaddus says Nichol's cellmate found Nichol after returning from the prison gymnasium. He says Nichol tied the bedsheet around the metal frame of a bunk bed.

Attempts at resuscitation failed and Nichol was declared dead at 7:33 p.m.

An Illinois Department of Corrections spokeswoman said late Tuesday the matter is under investigation. She did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

State records show Nichol was eight months into a six-year term from Marion County for aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a victim older than five.

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