OGDEN — A man who had been found mentally incompetent for his case to proceed and waiting for months for a bed at the Utah State Hospital died last week after injuring himself in the Weber County Jail in February.
Matthew Ryan Hall, 31, of Ogden, was in jail after pleading guilty as part of a deal with prosecutors to disarming an officer of an energy device, a third-degree felony, and misdemeanor charges of assaulting an officer, attempted assault by a prisoner and interference with an arresting officer.
However, before Hall could be sentenced, court records show his mental status deteriorated and he was found incompetent to proceed. Attorneys agreed it was likey that, with treatment, Hall could be restored to competency, the records indicate.
Hall had been waiting for several months to be transferred to the Utah State Hospital for treatment and was on suicide watch Feb. 24 when he ran headfirst into a wall three times and then leapt or fell from a railing, critically injuring himself, according to the Disability Law Center.
Hall had been in jail since November 2015 when he was arrested in a scuffle with police officers, at one point trying to grab one of the officer's Taser. A neighbor had called police reporting Hall was acting threateningly and appeared to be on drugs, according to court documents.
Hall's brother, Nathan Hall, said the incident shocked family members, who did not think the 31-year-old was suicidal.
"I was expecting him to get out any time," Nathan Hall told the Deseret News shortly after his brother was paralyzed. "He'd been in there 15 months."
After harming himself in jail, Matthew Hall was transferred to LDS Hospital before passing away the morning of April 7.
Nathan Hall said he suspected that his younger brother may have been having some mental health issues in the months leading up to his arrest but said that he seemed to deteriorate once he was put in jail.
Weber County Sheriff's Lt. Nathan Hutchinson said the department has finished an investigation and an internal review, concluding that Hall was alone in his cell at the time and was responsible for his own injuries, and that jail personnel and medical staff responded appropriately.
Hutchinson commended jail staff for their efforts, calling Hall's death a tragedy.
"I'm not sure we can ever say for sure what his intent was," Hutchinson said.
In his obituary, the family described Matthew Hall as loyal and athletic. The family wrote they spent the last day and a half "aware he was on borrowed time" after Matthew Hall was resuscitated twice by personnel at the hospital.
Services will be held at Myers Mortuary, 845 Washington Blvd., Ogden, on Saturday at 6 p.m.
The family requested that any donations to help cover funeral costs be made to Myers Mortuary directly.