David Demharter

A 22-year-old Butler man died by suicide after hanging himself Jan. 20 in the Butler County Prison.

David N. Demharter was nearing the end of a 15-month jail sentence for aggravated assault and statutory sexual assault when he hanged himself, resulting in his brain being completely deprived of oxygen for at least four minutes, according to an autopsy report. Demharter's manner of death was ruled a suicide by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office. His cause of death was ruled to be anoxic brain injury because of hanging.

After he was discovered, Demharter was taken to Butler Memorial Hospital before being transferred to UPMC Presbyterian, according to the coroner's report, where he succumbed to a brain injury at 4:43 p.m. Jan. 23.

Demharter had been in the jail since April 29.

Butler County Prison Warden Joe DeMore declined to comment. But Butler County Chief Detective Timothy Fennell, who was tasked with investigating Demharter's death, said investigators spent a week looking into the case and determined that there were no suspicious circumstances. The investigation is closed, according to Fennell.

Anoxic brain injury occurs when there is a loss of oxygen to the brain for at least four minutes, leading to death. A continuous supply of oxygen is needed for the brain to make use of glucose, its major energy source. If the oxygen supply is interrupted, as in the case of hanging, consciousness will be lost within 15 seconds and damage to the brain begins to occur after about four minutes without oxygen, according to the American Medical Journal.

A Butler man who was serving a jail sentence at the time of Demharter's death said there were warning signs that Demharter was mentally distressed. The witness requested anonymity because he is serving probation and fears retribution from officials. His account has been confirmed by others with knowledge of the incident.

Demharter was in solitary confinement at the time of the incident, according to the man.

“(Demharter) was telling people he had stuff going on in his head that he needed to talk to someone about,” he said.

According to District Attorney Richard Goldinger, investigators found no issue with the case. Goldinger said that Demharter wasn't on suicide watch and staff had no warning that Demharter was entertaining suicidal thoughts.

According to court records, Demharter was serving two jail sentences simultaneously at the time of his death.

In the first case, he pleaded guilty to stabbing a 23-year-old Slippery Rock man during a street fight April 28. The stabbing left the victim hospitalized with four stab wounds and a collapsed lung. For that, he was sentenced to one to two years in jail.

In the second case, Demharter pleaded guilty to having sex with a 15-year-old girl he had met at a party at a Slippery Rock Township apartment complex in March or April 2019. After police became aware of the relationship, Demharter called them April 9, 2020, “saying he wanted to speak to (them) about this incident,” according to charging documents.

He claimed he didn't know the girl's age when they had sex somewhere in the area surrounding Slippery Rock University, police said.

Under state law, a person can be charged with statutory sexual assault if the accuser is younger than age 16 and the defendant is four or more years older than the accuser.

Demharter pleaded guilty in the two cases Nov. 24, but he had been in the Butler County Prison since April 29 because he was unable to post his bonds of $25,000 for the stabbing case and $100,000 for the sexual assault case. Because of that, he was granted 234 days of credit for time already served.