Great Bend Post
Just before 9 p.m., on Saturday, Jan. 11, Barton County Sheriff's Office staff was notified of a possible death inside the detention facility. Twenty-eight-year-old Conner Clifton was found hanging inside his individual cell at the jail, according to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI). EMS was called and life-saving measures were attempted on Clifton, but he was pronounced deceased.
The Barton County Sheriff’s Office contacted the KBI to respond. Per state statute, the KBI investigates deaths that occur in Kansas jails and prisons unless the inmate who dies was being regularly attended to by a physician. An autopsy completed on Monday ruled Clifton's manner of death as suicide.
Clifton was booked into the Barton County Detention Center on Dec. 22 on a Barton County District Court case for interference with law enforcement officers, no proof of liability insurance on a vehicle, possession of drug paraphernalia, and expired or no registration. His first appearance in the case was Monday morning. Clifton also had pending cases in Stafford and Ness counties.