Westmoreland County jail inmate found hanged

Westmoreland County jail officials are investigating how an inmate left alone in his cell was able to apparently commit suicide by hanging from an air vent with a bedsheet.

Guards found William E. McMunn Jr., 29, unresponsive and dangling from the vent at 2:25 a.m. Tuesday, less than an hour after staff members saw him alive in his cell. After attempts to resuscitate him failed, he was taken to Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:04 a.m., according to Warden John Walton.

McMunn, of Vandergrift, had been an inmate since his arrest in June on burglary charges related to a break-in at an Allegheny Township home and an assault on three police officers who attempted to take him into custody.

While awaiting trial, McMunn was charged last week with aggravated assault for allegedly stabbing his cellmate in the neck with a pencil over a dispute over coffee.

Walton said the jail staff had no indication that McMunn had emotional problems and he was never placed on suicide watch.

The hanging occurred in a disciplinary cell where McMunn was transferred after his arrest for attacking his cellmate.

“He never met the screening guidelines for suicide watch,” Walton said. “He was (in jail) four times before and was never on suicide watch.”

Court records indicate McMunn served a six- to 23-month sentence at the jail after he pleaded guilty in 2007 to the statutory sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl. He served a three- to 23-month sentence after he pleaded guilty to selling cocaine to an undercover detective in 2014.

Walton said precautions the jail took after a string of suicides a decade ago have worked. The last inmate suicide was in 2010.

In 2009, officials instituted a series of screening criteria to identify and intensively watch inmates who are deemed at risk for suicide.

Inmates with a history of suicide attempts initially are placed under suicide watch in cells monitored with video cameras. Those inmates are stripped of personal belongings and items they could use to harm themselves, such as shoelaces and bedsheets.

Suicides were an issue at the jail in the early 2000s, when several inmates killed themselves, including one who jumped over a balcony and fell two stories.

Officials instituted intensive psychological screening and built a fence around second-floor cells.

“We've had a couple of attempted suicides in the last year, but none were successful,” said Sheriff Jonathan Held, the jail's board chairman.

He said the jail will investigate to determine whether the staff followed jail procedures in dealing with McMunn.

District Attorney John Peck said his office's investigation into McMunn's death is under way. Officials were awaiting results from McMunn's autopsy Tuesday afternoon.

Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-830-6293 or rcholodofsky@tribweb.com.