Medical Examiner identifies two men who died in Spokane County Jail

The Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office has identified the two men who died while in custody Monday inside the Spokane County Jail.

The inmates were 50-year-old Tamico R. McDaniels, of Spokane, and 48-year-old Nickolas S. Smith, whose last known address was listed in Chewelah.

The cause and manner of their deaths were listed as “pending.”

Officials previously said that McDaniels and Smith were recently booked, one on Sunday and another on Dec. 7. But officials have not said what alleged crimes prompted their incarcerations.

They also said drug overdose or drug-related causes were suspected. Sheriff John Nowels said earlier this week that the investigation could take weeks as they wait for toxicology reports as part of the autopsy process.

“Basically any investigation we do as the sheriff’s office into those incidents is information that we are going to glean over the next couple of days, couple of weeks, in conjunction with the medical examiner’s office to find out truly what happened,” Nowels said.

He noted that the Medical Examiner’s office holds legal authority over the remains and physical evidence.

“And so it’sgoing to take a while to get toxicology reports back, autopsy reports back for us to kind of paint the complete picture of what we saw” on Monday, Nowels said.

The deaths of McDaniels and Smith happened about an hour apart as both inmates were being held in separate locations inside the jail.

A third inmate, a woman booked on Dec. 10, also overdosed but survived.

County spokeswoman Martha Lou Wheatley-Billeter said earlier this week that she could not confirm what substance may have been involved in the Monday incidents.

In addition to the two deaths and the overdose, a different male inmate suffered a “cardiac incident.” That inmate, who was booked on Dec. 11 and was not identified, is expected to make a recovery, Wheatley-Billeter said.

While saying the investigation will take time, Nowels did say that the jail has suffered from some of the same problems facing the community at large.

“I think it’s important for the public to understand when you’re operating a correctional facility anywhere in this country these days, the fentanyl crisis, the opioid crisis, has hit our jail population very, very hard,” he said. “I think everybody can imagine that chronic use of any kind of controlled substance, but particularly fentanyl and other opioids, has a negative effect on people’s overall health.

“And we’re putting these people into a group setting, and we have doctors and nurses tasked with trying to make sure we give these people the best medical care possible, and sometimes maybe not the easiest environment to deliver that kind of health care.”

Don Hooper, chief of Spokane County’s Detention Services, said the sheriff’s office will conduct the investigation into the inmate deaths.

“We house them, but the sheriff’s office takes care of all investigations for in-custody deaths or other critical incidents within the jail,” Hooper said earlier this week, “and so we’re waiting for his detectives to finish their investigation, as well as the medical examiner. We also do our own internal review and all the review of our policies and our procedures.”

Until 2013, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office operated both the jail and Geiger Corrections Center on the West Plains. But that year, the Spokane County Commission voted to take over operations of both facilities.

Sheriff’s spokesman Cpl. Mark Gregory said Friday that he had very little to add about the ongoing investigation.

“We are continuing to investigate, along side the Medical Examiner, to determine what caused these two individuals who passed away,” Gregory said.

Hooper, the detention chief, said the deaths and the medical emergencies occurring nearly simultaneously were tough situations for all involved.

“I will say it was one of the longer days of my career, and I’ve been doing it for 28 years,” Hooper said. “And I think the question came out earlier was just the effect on our staff. One, our staff put everything into life-saving measures. I mean, it is so commendable.”

The county’s detention services deployed the opioid-overdose reversal medication Naloxone Hydrochloride, also called Narcan, 38 times this year. The department also hospitalized 35 inmates because of apparent overdose signs in 2025.

“It is so impressive every time, and they put their heart and soul into saving lives,” Hooper said of his staff. “And sometimes we’re not successful, and it’s really sad. It’s tough on our staff.”