The Duval County jail. [Andrew Pantazi/The Tributary]

A 46-year-old man awaiting transfer to a mental health facility died in the Duval County jail this week, according to multiple media reports.

Timmothy Elwin Wright was arrested on a charge of violating probation in late January. Wright was on probation for an earlier charge for lewd and lascivious exhibition, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said in a news release, which was not sent to The Tributary.

While incarcerated, Wright was deemed incompetent and was sentenced to go to a mental health treatment facility, JSO said.

On Tuesday, officers found Wright unresponsive in his cell and could not revive him. He was pronounced dead just after 6 a.m. His cause of death is being reviewed by the Medical Examiner’s Office.

There were no signs of force or any known physical altercations between Wright and other inmates, JSO said. 

Wright is the sixth person to die in jail custody this year.

Earlier this month,  66-year-old Scott Stormes died after a “lengthy stay” in the hospital. His autopsy is still pending.

Three people died in February and all of their autopsies have been completed. Leory Beckett, 66, died of lung cancer. Isaiah Lazarus Mitchell, 24, and Kiara Lapearl Reid, 32, both overdosed on fentanyl.

In January, 59-year-old Gregory Norton died after being hospitalized for an ongoing medical issue, with the medical examiner determined was due to an internal infection of the spine. His manner of death was determined to be natural.

Fifteen people died in custody of the Duval County jail last year. That was the fourth year in a row JSO saw double-digit deaths at the jail under a private medical provider.

The Tributary previously found that deaths in the Duval County jail tripled after 2017 when the Sheriff’s Office privatized medical care at the facility.

After The Tributary published its findings, JSO severed its $98-million contract with Armor Correctional Health Services, replacing it with a $110-million contract with NaphCare for the next five years.

Read The Tributary’s previous coverage of Duval County jail conditions here.

Nichole Manna is The Tributary’s criminal justice reporter. You can reach her at nichole.manna@floridatrib.org or on Twitter at @NicholeManna.

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Nichole Manna is The Florida Trib's Senior Investigative Reporter. She has been with the organization since 2023 and has covered the criminal justice system for more than a decade.

Nichole has extensively covered conditions at the Duval County jail and in 2024 received first place from the Green Eyeshade Awards in online investigations for her reporting of medical neglect at the facility. That series of stories was recognized with awards at the local, regional and national level. She took home the first place prize for a feature story in a small newsroom from the Online Journalism Awards in 2025 for her series, ‘Cold-Blooded’, which dissected a 1993 death penalty case and questioned whether the defendant received a fair trial.

Prior to joining The Trib, Nichole was an investigative reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas where she was a Livingston Award finalist for a series of stories about a neighborhood with the lowest life expectancy in the state. Her work helped get residents access to free pop-up clinics and they continue to receive help with food disparities.

She is currently working with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network to produce an investigative project.

You can reach her at nichole@floridatrib.org.