BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) – A man who attempted suicide while awaiting trial at the South Burlington jail died on Saturday.

Vermont State Police said Ryan Rodriguez, 25, died early in the morning at Fletcher Allen Health Care, four days after he was found in his cell.

Rodriguez was discovered hanging early Tuesday morning in his cell by a correctional officer at the Chittenden Community Correctional Center making a routine check.

State police said Saturday that the case was considered a suicide and the investigation into Rodriguez’s death was closed.

The death marks the first suicide in the state’s jails in close to a year, since convicted murder James Quigley hanged himself at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.

Quigley was the sixth inmate to die while in Vermont prisons in an 18-month period. Those deaths spawned an extensive investigation into how the prison system evaluates inmates, including how they identify potential suicide risks.

A state senator who has been active in prison issues said Saturday he feared that the Corrections Department system may not have been fixed.

“The real question was what was done at the front end to prevent it or try to identify the telltale signs that this person is suicidal,” said Sen. Vincent Illuzzi, R-Essex-Orleans.

AP-ES-10-24-04 1314EDT