Female Inmate Found Dead at Linn County Jail

[UPDATE THURSDAY, MARCH 25 9:10 AM] The Linn County Sheriff's Office reports the female inmate found unresponsiveness in a female cellblock at the Linn County Jail early Thursday morning was 31-year-old Malorie S. Hults of Cedar Rapids.

Hults was pronounced dead at Mercy Medical Center after being found at approximately 2:10 a.m. Thursday. She had been booked Wednesday evening for assault domestic abuse with injury without intent, according to a media release from the Linn County Sheriff's Office. She was being held for an arraignment court appearance.

[ORIGINAL STORY] An inmate at the Linn County Correctional Center on Mays Island was found unresponsive early this morning, just hours after she was taken into custody.

According to a media release from Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner the woman, who was described as an "arraignment inmate", was taken into custody Wednesday night, March 23, just after 6:20 p.m.

Everything appeared to be fine with the inmate during a 1:20 a.m. check Thursday morning. However, just after 2:10 a.m. a Linn County Correctional Center officer was doing a routine check while also placing another female inmate into the 3rd floor female arraignment cellblock. It was then that Sheriff Gardner says the female inmate was found "unconscious and unresponsive, lying on the floor. A medical emergency was declared over the Correctional Center radios and other jail staff immediately responded to the cellblock."

Medical staff performed CPR and also used an automated external defibrillator on the woman, with paramedics from Area Ambulance Service also assisting at the scene. She was taken to Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids, where was was pronounced dead.

Investigators with the Linn County Sheriff's Office have reviewed video and "investigators have found no apparent cause for the inmate’s medical emergency," according to the media release. The female inmate's body has been taken to the State Medical Examiner's Office in Ankeny for an autopsy, per order of the Linn County Medical Examiner.

The incident remains under investigation with the inmate's name being withheld until next of kin are notified of her passing.

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