PITTSBORO, N.C. (WNCN) — A 19-year-old inmate was found dead early Sunday morning in his cell at the Chatham County Detention Center, the sheriff’s office said.
Deputies said a cellmate found Jaimarien Rayshaun Sellers unresponsive shortly after midnight.
Detention center officers reported during a routine periodic check earlier that Sellers had been sleeping in his cell.
When Sellers’ roommate told officers he was unresponsive, deputies said the officers entered the cell to administer CPR. Officers were unable to revive him and contacted EMS, according to the sheriff’s office.
Deputies said Sellers had been in custody since April 28 on the following charges:
- robbery with a dangerous weapon
- second-degree kidnapping
- conspiracy to commit armed robbery
- assault by pointing a gun
- injury to personal property
- hit-and-run leaving the scene
He was being held under a $500,000 bond.
CBS 17 previously covered Sellers’ arrest when the sheriff’s office said he was one of six suspects arrested in connection to a drug deal that ended in an armed robbery.
The sheriff’s office said Sellers’ death is being investigated and requested that the medical examiner conduct an autopsy to determine his cause of death. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation has also been asked to review the death because it occurred while he was in custody and no cause of death was immediately apparent.
“Our hearts are with Mr. Sellers’ family in their time of loss,” Sheriff Mike Roberson said. “And we are doing everything we can to determine his cause of death.”
