Inmate didn’t show indications of suicide

Ronald W. Ross was hauled to the Kootenai County Jail at least four times in the past year. The last time was Saturday.

On Sunday afternoon, a fellow inmate discovered the 35-year-old man hanging from a noose fashioned from a bedsheet and tied to the end of his bunk, according to the Coeur d’Alene Police and Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department.

The suicide is among a handful for the county jail in the past 20 years, although there have been several attempts, said sheriff’s spokesman Ben Wolfinger. All successful suicides at the jail have been achieved by turning bedding into ropes.

If the jail staff classifies someone as suicidal, they are placed on suicide watch and put in a holding cell in the booking area where staff can keep a close eye on them. They wear quilted scrubs that can’t be torn into strips. The holding cells have no bunks from which to hang, Wolfinger said.

Ross hadn’t yet been evaluated, but Police Sgt. Christie Wood said jail staff had no indication that Ross was suicidal when he was booked on an arrest warrant Saturday. The initial booking procedure does include questions to determine if an inmate is at risk of suicide, Wolfinger said.

“Some people who are really intent on it, really aren’t going to say, and some people, after sitting in jail a couple days, decide it’s not worth it,” Wolfinger said.

Court records do indicate that Ross was emotionally unstable, however. Last summer, the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department issued an attempt-to-locate report on Ross, who was reportedly upset over a pending divorce. The notice warned that Ross was armed and may be suicidal, according to court records.

Post Falls Police arrested a drunken and distraught Ross on his boat at Templin’s Resort not long after he fired a gun. He was arrested on the charge of firing a gun within the city limits.

Earlier he had allegedly brandished a gun at his wife’s workplace in Spokane, a police report said.

Ross’ recent troubles with the law appear to stem from an arrest last April for domestic battery, after his wife told police he lost his temper and assaulted her. Ross denied the allegations and initially pleaded not guilty, according to court records.

Later, after the gun and battery charges were consolidated into one case, Ross changed his plea and the gun charge was dropped.

He was scheduled to be sentenced on the domestic battery charge later this month. But last month, Ross was arrested again, this time for allegedly assaulting another man.

He gave his most recent address as Newman Lake and had previously lived at Hauser Lake with his wife and two children, ages 8 and 5.

At a court appearance in February, Ross was ordered to remain in court and submit to a Breathalyzer test because the prosecuting attorney smelled alcohol on him.

Ross left the courtroom and did not return.

The judge issued a warrant for his arrest and imposed a $25,000 bond, according to court records.

The arrest was made Saturday, and Ross was placed in an individual cell, as is the practice with new inmates.

He was checked on periodically by roaming detention deputies, but it was a fellow inmate who last saw him alive, according to Wolfinger and Wood.

“We’ve seen with people who have committed suicide in the past, they’ll talk to a deputy doing cell checks and 10 minutes later they’re hanging,” Wolfinger said.

“You can”t eyeball individual cells all the time.”