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NATCHEZ — The Natchez Police Department inmate who was found dead in the Concordia Parish Correctional Facility in late April died of heart disease.

Brandy Spears, spokeswoman for the Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office, said autopsy results received on Tuesday listed Blarrington Ashley’s cause of death as hypertensive and atherosclerotic heart disease and the manner of death as accidental.

Ashley, 53, had been indicted by a grand jury for shoplifting more than $1,000. Ashley was found unresponsive in the facility in late April. No information about Ashley’s death had been released pending autopsy results.

The City of Natchez contracts with the Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office to house its inmates, as does Adams County, since Adams County Sheriff Travis Patten closed the jail to the majority of its inmates in August 2023 due to safety concerns for inmates and jail staffers.

Since that time, two Natchez inmates have died while in custody at the Concordia Parish Correctional Facility. On Oct. 6, 2023, a Natchez Police Department inmate was killed after he was assaulted by another inmate, also from Natchez, in the Concordia Parish Correctional Facility.