Death of Dougherty Jail inmate under investigation, no foul play suspected

ALBANY — The Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office has requested the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s assistance in investigating the death of a jail inmate who was found unresponsive in his cell Tuesday evening.

An inmate in the cell with Travoski Travon Shealy reported a medical emergency to a jail staff member shortly after 7 p.m., Sheriff’s Department Col. Jon Ostrander, who oversees the facility, said. “He had passed out in his cell. The officer immediately began giving him aid. He couldn’t get him to respond.”

Jail medical staff also attempted to revive the 24-year-old, who was jailed on charges of four counts of murder, until the arrival of a Dougherty County Emergency Medical Services ambulance, Ostrander said.

Shealy was pronounced dead at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital at around 8 p.m., Dougherty County Coroner Michael Fowler said. The initial examination did not reveal any foul play.

Shealy’s body will be transported to a GBI laboratory for an autopsy to determine the cause of death and for toxicology analysis.

“We don’t think anybody did anything to him,” Fowler said. “We didn’t see anything obvious. We didn’t see any trauma. We can’t rule anything out at this point.”

The sheriff’s office has an ongoing investigation and requested the GBI’s involvement to provide transparency, Ostrander said. Shealy had been in the facility for 544 days, and jail officials were not aware of any prior health issues.

“We have an independent investigation going on by the GBI, which is our standard procedure when there is an inmate death,” Ostrander said.

Prior to Tuesday the last inmate death at the Dougherty Jail occurred six weeks ago. Tony Randall Davis, who was in his 50s and had been in jail about two days, was in a cell by himself and a jail staff member discovered him unresponsive while making rounds. He was later pronounced dead at Phoebe.

The GBI has completed its investigation and is awaiting the results of toxicology tests, Ostrander said.

Special Photo: Dougherty County Jail