Politics & Government

GBI: Brunn Used Sweatshirt to Kill Self

The Department of Corrections said today that Ryan Brunn was not under suicide watch.

Ryan Brunn, , hanged himself, according to one of his court-appointed attorneys and the spokesman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

"My understanding was that he may have used his jumpsuit and hanged himself," David L. Cannon Sr. said. "That's what I know."

At 2:08 p.m. today, GBI spokesman John Bankhead confirmed that Brunn hanged himself with his prison-issued sweatshirt.

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"The results of the autopsy today on Ryan Brunn have determined the cause of death as ligature hanging and the manner of death as suicide," he said in a statement. "The ongoing investigation by agents from the GBI’s Milledgeville Regional Office has not uncovered any evidence to indicate Brunn’s death was anything other than a suicide. The Medical Examiner found no other significant trauma on Brunn’s body." 

Brunn was —barely 48 hours after he was for the December 2011 murder of 7-year-old Jorelys Rivera.

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"He was pronounced dead at a local hospital at 5:37 p.m. of an apparent suicide,"  Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Kristen Stancil said in a statement on Thursday.

During an interview this morning, Cannon said he learned of his client's death at 5:40 p.m. Thursday from the interim director of Cherokee County's Indigent Defense.

"My initial reaction," he said, "was, 'How did it happen? Why wasn't it prevented?' My feeling was a feeling of regret. It was a feeling of emptiness and somewhat sense of failure. We worked hard to try to resolve the case so that he wouldn't be facing the death penalty, and he then took his own life. That's a difficult thing to accept."

After receiving the news, Cannon said he spoke to , Brunn's other court-appointed attorney. 

"I told him whatever he felt he should do he could do about contacting the family," he said. "I have not talked to the family." 

Nothing led Cannon or Burns to believe that something like this would happen. Cannon said the discussions that he and Burns had with Brunn were "long, detailed and covered a lot of issues."

Even though attorney-client privilege might have ceased with Brunn's death, Cannon said it wasn't appropriate for him to delve into the specifics of those discussions with Brunn. They need to remain between Brunn, Burns and himself, he said.

Suffice to say, "we had nothing to indicate to us that our client was considering suicide nor did he express any tendencies concerning suicide so that was not an issue that we were concerned about," he said.

But Cannon said Brunn was on suicide watch until the last two weeks of his stay at the . It wasn't because he displayed the signs of a suicidal person.

"Maj. Johnson, who runs the jail, was concerned about his safety just because of the nature of the charges and the nature of the crime," Cannon said. "We did not object to it at all. We thought it was the appropriate way to ... protect the safety our client."

Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan said this afternoon that Brunn was not on suicide watch at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, where he'd been since approximately 8:45 p.m. Tuesday.

"He was placed in a segregation cell by himself for his safety," she said in a statement. "He was interviewed by mental health staff on Wednesday and was not placed on suicide watch based on the counselors findings. Brunn remained in the segregation cell until Thursday when he committed suicide at approximately 4:00 p.m."

Hogan did not say who found Brunn in his cell. Cannon said he last spoke to his client on Tuesday.

"After the sentencing, I said to Mr. Brunn, 'Good luck,' " he said. "And he said, 'Thank you.' "

Stay tuned to Canton-Sixes Patch for more of today's interview with Cannon as well as other updates.


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