Marvin Banks
Marvin Banks, 30, was held pretrial at the Forrest County Jail in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, when he was found unresponsive in his cell on a Friday night in December 2015. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead soon after. The Forrest County coroner and state officials said there were no signs of trauma and that homicide was ruled out, and an initial autopsy found an enlarged heart and scar tissue. The final cause and manner of death were still pending further tests, and reports gave his age as 29 in one account, so the records differ on that detail.
Cause of death, as reported: Died of illness. The coroner and state officials attribute Marvin Banks's death to an enlarged heart, with final results still pending further tests.
Reported by: Forrest County coroner Butch Benedict (medical examiner or coroner); Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (outside investigators); Forrest County sheriff's office (the agency that held him); Warren Strain, spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety (outside investigators).