Coroner confirms cause of jail death

COLFAX — An inmate found dead in the Whitman County Jail died of “cloth ligature hanging.”

On Thursday, Jan. 7, Whitman County Coroner Annie Pillers released her findings in the Dec. 26 death of Jose Noe Chagollan Flores, 35 of Pullman. He was found unresponsive in the county jail.

“The manner of his death was suicide,” the coroner wrote in concluding her findings in the death.

At the time of his death, Flores was being held in the jail on charges of kidnapping, attempted murder and three counts of assault. He was booked into the jail Aug. 1, 2020, and was not on any suicide watch.

Flores was...