Jerry Wiggins
Jerry Wiggins, 40, was a former handyman and the father of two sons, and he was buried on January 23, 2017, in Cemetery in his hometown of Jersey City, New Jersey. He died on December 22, 2016, after going over the second-floor walkway rail of a cell block at Martin Correctional Institution, a Florida state prison where he was held. Surveillance video shows him leaping, and another person held there tried unsuccessfully to grab him. A Florida Department of Law Enforcement report released in April 2017 cites Dr. Roger E. Mittleman, the chief medical examiner, as ruling the death a suicide caused by head trauma, and the Florida Department of Corrections also recorded the manner of death as suicide. His mother said he did not understand the legal proceedings he faced because of his low intelligence.
Cause of death, as reported: Died by suicide. The medical examiner ruled the death a suicide from head trauma after he jumped from a second-floor walkway at Martin Correctional Institution, and the Florida Department of Corrections recorded it as suicide.
Reported by: Dr. Roger E. Mittleman, chief medical examiner (medical examiner or coroner); Florida Department of Law Enforcement report (outside investigators); Florida Department of Corrections (the agency that held him).