Kane County jail inmate dies of apparent heart attack

ST. CHARLES TOWNSHIP – Preliminary autopsy results indicate that a Kane County jail inmate died of a heart attack and coronary artery disease Sept. 27 while he was in the jail’s medical housing unit, officials announced in a news release.

The autopsy was performed on inmate Thomas Roberts, 53, of Clarksville, Tenn., on Sept. 29, and toxicology samples were sent to a forensic lab, the release stated.

Roberts was transferred to the jail's medical housing unit earlier in the week after complaining of chest pain, Kane County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Pat Gengler said

The medical housing unit is a cell block for inmates with medical conditions or when they are not feeling well, Gengler said.

“They have medical staff evaluate [him] and decide – do we keep an eye on him here or do we have to send him to the hospital,” Gengler said. “We have a nurse down there, EMTs and medical staff on site.”

Roberts was talking on the phone at 7:40 p.m. when he collapsed and was unresponsive, Gengler said.

Officers and medical staff performed CPR, including using an automated external defibrillator, until paramedics arrived, but Roberts was pronounced dead at 8:11 p.m., the release stated.

Gengler said though it appears that Roberts died of an apparent heart attack, an autopsy is scheduled for Sept. 29 to confirm the cause of his death.

Roberts was charged on Feb. 22 with criminal sexual assault of a victim under the age of 18 and was being held on $500,000 bond, the release stated.

Per state law, the Illinois State Police have been called in to conduct the investigation into the incident, the release stated.