Drugs killed Johnny Autry inside NC prison, autopsy says. How did he get them?

A drug overdose claimed the life of Johnny Autry Jr., a North Carolina prison inmate who died in January under circumstances his family considered questionable, a newly released autopsy concludes.

Autry, 44, an inmate at Pamlico Correctional Institution, died on Jan. 9 from methamphetamine intoxication, according to the report by a pathologist at East Carolina University.

Autry was “reportedly seen ‘smoking something’ by prison staff before acting strangely and becoming unresponsive,” the report states.

“How did he get the drugs in prison?” asked Autry’s father, Johnny Autry Sr. “I’d like to see some answers on that.”

When asked where the drugs came from, prison spokesman Brad Deen did not respond. But he said the state is “taking a national lead in innovative technology and methods” to combat smuggled contraband.

A 2017 Charlotte Observer investigation found that illegal drugs and cell phones abound inside many state prisons - and that most of the contraband at maximum security prisons was smuggled in by staff members.

It’s now standard practice for employees to search everyone who enters prisons, using metal detectors, body scanners and pat-downs, Deen said. The state has also beefed up fencing and added nets at prisons across the state to prevent illegal items from being thrown to inmates, he said.

Despite such efforts, Deen acknowledged, contraband still reaches inmates. Earlier this month, for instance, a former manager at Pasquotank Correctional Institution was arrested after she was caught bringing marijuana into the prison.

Abrasions, but no broken bones

Autry’s family members say they were filled with questions when they viewed his body at the funeral home days after he died. He had two black eyes, bruises elsewhere on his face, and cuts on the top of his head - signs that they felt showed he might have been beaten before his death.

In a press release issued after Autry’s death, the state Department of Public Safety said staff members at the coastal North Carolina prison spoke to him for more than an hour after he came to them in a “paranoid state.”

“Staff were unable to calm him before he entered into medical distress and became unresponsive,” the press release stated.

Prison staff members performed CPR, according to the release. Then, after prison staff called 911, paramedics arrived and tried without success to revive Autry.

Pamlico Correctional, a medium-security prison that houses about 560 inmates, had no medical staff on duty on the night Autry died, a prison spokesman said earlier this year in response to questions from the Charlotte Observer.

Autry was serving a prison sentence for drug possession and a habitual felon conviction. He was scheduled to be released in December.

The autopsy report said he had a hemorrhage in his left eye, a half-inch cut on his scalp and abrasions on both hands and on his right forearm - but no fractures or internal injuries. He also had an enlarged heart, swelling of the brain and fluid in his lungs.

Autry’s family took photographs of his body at the funeral home, and shared them with the Observer. The photos appear to show that Autry had two black eyes, a long cut or bruise on his right cheek, a bruise or abrasion on his chin, and several cuts on the top of his head.

The autopsy report made no mention of black eyes or other marks on his face. Autry’s father said he still wants to know how he got those marks.

‘Wondering if he was beat down’

Family members said while prison officials have told them little about what happened, they’ve heard from inmates who said Autry was escorted by prison staff to a room without surveillance cameras — the so-called “intake room” — shortly before his death.

Less than an hour later, the prison called a Code 4, which is typically sounded when prisoners assault one another, according to a letter written to Autry’s fiancee and reviewed by the Observer.

Inmates at the prison reported that they never saw Autry again, family members said.

Autry’s father said he heard from a prisoner at Pamlico who reported that an inmate janitor was called to clean up blood in the intake room that night, before investigators from the State Bureau of Investigation arrived.

“Why was my son in the intake room where there were no cameras,” Autry Sr. asked. “I’m still wondering if he was beat down.”

In a letter to the Observer, Autry’s brother, Wes, said he doesn’t think the autopsy tells the true story.

“Overdose doesn’t cause your body to be bruised like Johnny’s,” he wrote.

Deen, the prison spokesman, did not answer questions about how Autry got the injuries described in the autopsy report. He said DPS thoroughly investigates when inmates die unexpectedly, but does not comment on active investigations.

A prison spokesman previously declined the Observer’s request for surveillance video from Pamlico Correctional on the night of Autry’s death, citing prison security and the fact that the death was being investigated by the SBI.

The SBI cannot release any records or information on the case while it remains open, an agency spokeswoman said. The case file will be turned over to the county District Attorney, who will determine whether criminal charges will be filed.

A spokesperson for the state Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the state medical examiner system, said Friday that no one was available to discuss the autopsy.

Before he went to prison, Autry had been working for a company that did heating and air conditioning repair work. He had two grown daughters, both in their early 20s. He’d lived in the town of Kenly, about 45 miles east of Raleigh. But he’d been planning to move to Charlotte once he was released so that he could live with his fiancee.