Photo by Jeremy M. Lange
Durham County Detention Facility
An autopsy report released today by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner says Dashawn Devonte Evans, a twenty-three-year-old who died in the Durham jail in May, died of heroin and fentanyl toxicity.
Evans had been in the jail for about seven months prior to his May 27 death. An initial report from the Sheriff's Office listed his cause of death as unknown.
But a toxicology report shows there was morphine and fentanyl — a synthetic opioid stronger than morphine and heroin — present in his system.
According to the autopsy report, "a white powder (which testing detected heroin, fentanyl, and acetyl fentanyl) was found in his cell" when Evans was discovered to be unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at the jail following attempts to revive him with a defibrillator.
"Postmortem toxicological analysis detected morphine and 6-monoacetylmorphine, together indicating heroin use, as well as fentanyl and acetyl fentanyl," the report reads. "Heroin, fentanyl, and acetyl fentanyl are all central nervous system depressants with additive effects. Central nervous system depressants can cause pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs), respiratory depression (decreased breathing), coma, and death. No ethanol (alcohol) was detected."
Evans's death was the seventh at the jail since 2013. The State Bureau of Investigation is investigating, which is routine procedure.
According to the medical examiner's investigative report, Evans left his cell at about 6:44 a.m. on the day of his death for breakfast, after which he helped clean up and spoke with detention officers. He returned to his cell at seven a.m. and appeared to be sleeping at seven-thirty. According to an in-custody death report by the Sheriff's Office, this is when a detention officer last saw Evans alive.
He was found (by a different officer) unresponsive during a cell check at 7:57 and pronounced dead about an hour later. He was the only occupant of the cell at the time, the medical examiner's report notes, and had not been under the care of jail medical staff.
Evans's relatives shared testimonies in a GoFundMe page to raise money for funeral expenses and an independent investigation into his death.
“One thing I can say about my son is he’s a survivor," his Lewis Jacobs, said in that post. "He’s always been a survivor through all kind of ups and downs. He’s a survivor and I love him to death. And I knew that he loved me and he loved his family.”
This story has been updated to include details from the medical examiner's investigative report.
