Man plead for his life while suffocating to death in jail restraint chair

CLAY COUNTY, FL — Jailers taunted a young man as he begged for his life, strapped to a restraint chair and suffocating on pepper spray. The death of the teen was officially ruled a homicide, although the state later concluded that no one should be punished.

Daniel Linsinbigler, 19, was being detained at the Clay County Jail on non-violent misdemeanor charges resulting from some sort of psychotic break.

His incarceration did not go smoothly. After one day, he was placed in solitary confinement, supposedly for his own safety. He was placed on suicide watch.

An inmate in an adjacent cell described to First Coast News how jailers tormented Linsinbigler:

According to inmate Linus Farr, who was housed in the cell next door to Daniel Linsinbigler, the teen’s problems began the night before when he asked for a pencil to write with.

Linsinbigler had been in jail for more than a week and, according to Farr, wanted to make a written request to see his attorney. But while deputies apparently gave him the form, they would not give him anything to write with. He was on suicide watch. No pencils allowed.

According to Farr, the guards didn’t just deny Linsinbigler. They mocked him.

“They were all making fun of him,” Farr told investigators with the Clay County Sheriff’s Office. “They were calling him a Jesus freak, a God freak…[teasing him] about his religious beliefs: ‘God can’t’ help you now. God can’t give you a pencil.’”

The teasing, Farr added, caused Linsinbigler to grow “more and more agitated.”

The following morning, on March 12th, 2013 — the tenth day of his incarceration — Linsinbigler was allegedly being disruptive, yelling and kicking the door of his cell. Jailers confronted him for “making too much noise” and forcibly removed him from his cell.

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