A man died at the Centre County jail awaiting trial. His family is left with questions
The sister of the State College man who died last week at the Centre County Correctional Facility while awaiting trial remembered her younger brother as a people person, the type that would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it.
Larry A. David Jr., 46, was a “good talker,” Crystal David Felton said. He made others comfortable and knew how to make people laugh.
“Anybody that would have came in contact with him, I bet they liked him,” Felton said. “He’s never made any bad enemies or anything like that.”
Behind the memories Felton carries of her brother are a host of unanswered questions. Chief among them is what medical care he received in the days before his April 19 death.
David was found unresponsive in his cell by a corrections officer performing a routine round, county Administrator John Franek Jr. said. The county did not offer a more thorough description.
Felton said her brother was seen by a medical professional two days prior for a “real bad cold” and high blood pressure, but was told everything was OK.
Felton said a state police at Rockview trooper investigating David’s death told her surveillance footage showed him pass out while standing. The trooper said David hit his head and fell to the floor, Felton said.
Police described David’s death as “natural” in a statement Saturday. Officers declined further comment Wednesday.
The phone call that confirmed her brother’s death was “heartbreaking,” his sister said.
David died at the jail before he was transported to Mount Nittany Medical Center. The Centre County Coroner’s Office had not assigned a cause of death as of Monday while they await toxicology results. That process can often take weeks.
“I was shocked and saddened by the news of Larry’s passing,” defense lawyer Julian Allatt wrote in a Friday text message to the Centre Daily Times. “I met him under trying circumstances, but I enjoyed the time I spent with him and grew to like him a lot.”
David was detained at the jail since April 2021, when he was arrested on more than four dozen felony drug charges. His bail was $500,000. A hearing was scheduled for May 15.
Deaths at the county jail, which opened in 2005, are rare.
A 51-year-old Patton Township man was the first inmate at the jail to die in the county’s custody. He died in June 2014 of natural causes. A 32-year-old Potters Mills man awaiting trial died by suicide in June 2020.
“It concerned me. I’m not sure why it’s not concerning anybody else, but it did concern me. My brother has been in the same place for two years and then he just passed away,” Felton said. “... He was only 46. I’m very interested to see what his medical records state.”