From Media Reports
CRYSTAL SPRINGS – A female inmate who died in the back of a police car while being transported to a hospital had fractured ribs causing her to bleed out, the Copiah County coroner said.
Coroner Ellis Stewart said 40-year-old Stephanie Fay Howell fell about a week before she was taken into custody around July 9 or 10, WLBT reported. Howell suffered fractured ribs and one of her ribs went into her spleen, which caused a slow bleed, according to the coroner.
Copiah County Sheriff Harold Jones says Howell died in a police car outside a doctor’s office on July 12.
Jones says Howell was arrested on charges of shoplifting and contributing to the delinquency of a minor by the Crystal Springs Police Department. She was being held in the Copiah County jail, WLBT said.
Jones said a staff nurse, who is on call at the jail, examined Howell after Howell complained of being sick.
A Crystal Springs police officer transported Howell to the doctor’s office and she died in the car, according to Jones.
Funeral services for Howell were July 16 in Crystal Springs. She is survived by two children, her parents and a sister.
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