Sex offender sentenced to 80 years in prison was jail suicide victim

Authorities have identified the Jackson County jail inmate who died of an apparent suicide Monday as a convicted sex offender who four days earlier had been sentenced to 80 years in prison.

Michael McNurlin, 53, of Independence, was found unresponsive at 7:30 Monday evening in a dormitory area of the Jackson County Detention Center. He was transported to Truman Medical Center West, where he died, county officials said.

The cause of death and other details were not released and the investigation is ongoing, a spokesman for the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department said.

McNurlin was sentenced Thursday in Jackson County Circuit Court to four consecutive sentences of 20 years for sexually abusing a young boy on repeated occasion.

In July, he was found guilty of four counts of statutory sodomy for crimes that occurred in 2014 at McNurlin’s home involving a 10-year-old boy.

This story was originally published September 27, 2017 at 11:10 AM with the headline "Sex offender sentenced to 80 years in prison was jail suicide victim."