SEDGWICK COUNTY, Kan. (Updated 1/21/2025 1:30 p.m.) — On Jan. 20, 2025, at approximately 10:10 p.m., Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office detention staff discovered an unresponsive inmate on the floor of his cell in Pod 6. On-site medical personnel and Sedgwick County EMS were immediately notified and responded to the scene, where life-saving measures were attempted. The inmate was pronounced dead at approximately 10:52 p.m.
The inmate has been identified as 29-year-old Rashawn Pleass of Rockford, Illinois. He had been in custody since Dec. 23, 2023, awaiting sentencing in the 18th Judicial District Court on charges of aggravated domestic battery, possession of methamphetamine, and possession of opiates.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) and the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office Investigations Division are now investigating the circumstances surrounding the death.
Pleass did not have any obvious signs of trauma and investigators are now awaiting an autopsy and toxicology.
This is the first in-custody death of 2025.
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