Charges Unlikely In Death Of Inmate

According to the medical examiner's report, a small bone in White's neck, the hyoid, was broken. Assistant State Medical Examiner J. Laron Locke suggested that the injuries were inconsistent with hanging. Five medical examiners contacted by The Washington Post said the hyoid was more likely to be broken during a violent strangulation than in a suicide.

White was arrested June 27 and charged with murder, accused of running over Findley hours earlier in a Ford F-150 truck in Laurel.

Jail officials said that, two days later, about 10:30 a.m., corrections officer Ramon Davis found White unresponsive in his maximum-security cell and that efforts to revive him failed. Gregory Harris, a high-ranking jail official, said there was nothing in the cell -- such as a bedsheet -- that White could have used to harm himself.

More than a week later, another officer, Anthony McIntosh, told investigators that he had found White first. He told investigators that he found White hanging from a sheet and that instead of calling for help, he pulled the sheet down and left White in his cell.

In September, the county placed the two guards on leave, saying they had emerged as the focus of the state police investigation.

On June 30, the day White's death was ruled a homicide, County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) held a news conference during which he described himself several times as being angry. "If we have vigilante justice, our society will fall apart," he said. "If we tolerate these kinds of acts, the courts are superfluous."

Yesterday, Jim Keary, one of Johnson's spokesmen, said much has changed. "Since that time, the Maryland State Police have ruled that Ronnie White committed suicide. Not to mention the guards who have come forward and said initially what they found and what they did to cover that up."

Vernon Herron, the county's public safety director, also said the police investigation points to suicide.

State police spokesman Greg Shipley declined to comment on the county's description of its findings.

Defense attorneys said no evidence linked either corrections officer to White's death. The officers did not implicate one another, and no inmates housed nearby said they heard anything unusual, the attorneys said. The autopsy found that White's body did not bear any defensive injuries suggesting a struggle.

Timothy Fitts, an attorney for McIntosh, said Ivey had reached the "correct conclusion." George Harper, Davis's attorney, said, "My client has always maintained his innocence, and he has always been correct."

Staff reporter Henri E. Cauvin contributed to this report.