Medical examiner: Natural causes listed in 3 recent deaths of Allegheny County Jail inmates

The majority of at least five inmates who died at the Allegheny County Jail this year expired of natural causes, according to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Two deaths were attributed to accidental causes, the office reported.

Ronald James Andrus, 78, of McKees Rocks, died Aug. 14 as a result of ventricular fibrillation, a type of irregular heart rhythm, the Medical Examiner’s Office said.

Andrus was pronounced dead at about 3:15 p.m.

At the time, county spokesman Jesse Geleynse said Andrus had spent 10 days in a hospital and was released back to the jail on Aug. 14.

On Aug. 15, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald announced a plan to contract with a third-party organization to review deaths within the jail.

Fitzgerald said the National Commission on Correctional Healthcare “will bring in a multi-disciplinary team of physicians, behavioral health experts, and correctional policy and security experts to review the history of deaths that occurred at the jail.”

Geleynse said Andrus “had been back at the facility on the medical unit for about an hour when a medical emergency was declared.”

Corrections officers responded to the cell, as did medical and additional staff.

“As with all incidents at the facility, an internal review will be conducted and county police Internal Affairs will conduct an independent investigation,” Geleynse said.

Allegheny County Councilwoman Bethany Hallam, who serves on the jail oversight board, posted to social media that Andrus had been in jail on a probation violation since mid-July.

In January, a 77-year-old former priest who was accused of sex charges was transferred to a local hospital after being found unresponsive in his cell. The inmate, Paul Spisak, died at the hospital, which reported numerous medical complications. The Medical Examiner’s Office listed the death as accidental, caused by blunt force trauma of the head eight days earlier.

Two months later, 26-year-old Gerald Thomas died shortly after collapsing at the jail. Thomas, who was in jail on a technical probation violation, hit his head and was unresponsive after collapsing, according to his family. According to the Medical Examiner’s Office, the death was natural, caused by a pulmonary embolism — when a blood clot gets stuck in a lung artery.

In April, Jerry Lee Ross Jr., 48, was found unresponsive while being held at the jail. He was pronounced dead by jail medical staff. That death was also natural, attributed to an enlarged heart, according to the Medical Examiner’s Office.

Victor Joseph Zilinek, 39, died July 13 in the jail. The Medical Examiner’s Office indicated that death was accidental, the result of the combined toxic effects of substances including fentanyl and methamphetamine.

At least 15 people have died at the jail, or after being hospitalized from the jail, since April 2020.