Sheriff Jim Hammond said an inmate who took his own life at the County Jail on Saturday morning was in an isolation cell.
He said Justin Dale Bradley, who was charged with the murder of a three-year-old child, was being checked every 30-40 minutes.
The sheriff said it is believed that he hanged himself with a bed sheet shortly after a guard passed by.
He said a person can take their own life in 3-5 minutes by tying a sheet to a rung on the cell wall and hanging until they pass out.
He said it is not a situation where they hang from the ceiling.
Sheriff Hammond said Bradley was apparently despondent "over the difficult times ahead of him." He said he faced possible life in prison or even the death penalty.
"I'm sure that's pretty depressing," he said.
Notification was received from the Hamilton County 911 Center at 12:50 a.m., regarding an inmate found unresponsive.
Jail personnel found Bradley unresponsive in his cell and initiated CPR while notifying Hamilton County Emergency Medical Services. He was transported to an area hospital but did not respond to medical attempts to revive him and was pronounced dead.
Bradley had been charged with criminal homicide in the death of Dakota James Arndt. Bradley was the boyfriend of the boy's mother, Brianna Kwekel, who was in the workhouse serving time for a DUI at the time her child died.