Palm Beach County detectives are investigating the death of an inmate earlier this week.
According to official records, 29-year-old Travis Fletcher had been charged with aggravated assault and was in the Palm Beach County Jail.
Police say a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office corrections deputy was distributing breakfast food trays last Monday morning at 5 a.m., when he noticed that Fletcher did not come to take his tray.
The deputy then checked Fletcher’s bunk and found him unresponsive.
Jail medical personnel were called and began emergency medical treatment.
Fletcher was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead by emergency room personnel.
At 9:40 a.m. that morning, about five hours after the deputy found Fletcher unresponsive, attorneys appeared in court to discuss reducing his bond, believing that he was not present in court due to simply being sick.
Public Defender Carey Haughwout says Fletcher’s mother was also in court, ready with a bondsman to get him out and unaware that he had died.
By 10 a.m., Circuit Judge Daliah Weiss had agreed to lower his bail from $50,000 to $4,500. He would have also been placed on in-house arrest.
On the night of March 23, Fletcher called police when he thought his girlfriend and their child were being held against their will.
However, his girlfriend later told Riviera Beach officers they were not in fact being held, and added that she “has been a longtime victim of domestic violence by Fletcher,” according to an arrest report.
Fletcher had reportedly threatened to kill her boss and later came to her place of work with a 10- to-12-inch knife.
Officers arrested the Lake Park man the next morning on an aggravated assault charge.
Circuit Judge Laura Johnson then ordered that Fletcher be held on $50,000 bail for the third-degree felony charge, even though he had no prior convictions, and the scheduled bond is usually $3,000.
Foul play is not suspected, and officials say that Fletcher did not show any signs of underlying health issues.
The Medical Examiners Office has completed an autopsy and is pending toxicology results.