PARIS – An inmate at the Oxford County Jail attempted to hang himself hours before his hearing on a probation violation Friday in Oxford County Superior Court.

Christopher Jasud, 31, of Dixfield was ordered by Justice Robert E. Crowley to undergo a mental health evaluation at the Riverview Psychiatric Center in Augusta. His time at the facility will not exceed 60 days.

The order postponed Crowley’s scheduled ruling on Jasud’s probation violation, which relates to a fatal 1998 car accident. If the hearing determined that Jasud violated probation, he may have been ordered to serve the a maximum of six years and six months in prison.

According to conditions of bail entered on May 2, Jasud is being held on $250,000 cash or $500,000 worth of real estate for charges stemming from another car accident in 2006.

Jasud was charged with two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated driving to endanger, one count of criminal operating under the influence, and one count of operating after suspension for that accident.

His attorney, Maurice Porter, said guards at the jail were summoned to Jasud’s cell by other inmates late Thursday night or early Friday morning. They found Jasud hanging.

Porter said the suicide attempt is the second one Jasud has made while in jail. He said Jasud sliced his arms, inflicting serious wounds, about five or six weeks ago. Porter said Jasud was admitted to Riverview for a 72-hour observation after that incident.

“He’s a very depressed young guy,” Porter said.

He said the hanging was a “very serious suicide attempt,” and “not an attention-getting attempt.”

Capt. Ernest Martin, administrator of the jail, was unavailable for comment Friday afternoon.

Jasud was the driver of a 1981 Dodge van on Route 17 in Byron on May 23, 1998. According to a report by Maine State Police Trooper Kyle Tilsley, the van veered across the road, struck a guardrail, and struck a tree on the right side of the road. Passenger Seth Giberson, 25, of Rumford died of massive head trauma at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.

Tilsley said alcohol and speed were factors in the crash, and noted in his report that the vehicle’s occupants had “attempted to destroy evidence of alcohol use by dragging and dumping a cooler full of beer” in the nearby woods.

Jasud pleaded guilty to charges of manslaughter and criminal OUI and served five and a half years in prison.

After his release, the district attorney’s office asked for a revocation of Jasud’s probation due to failure to comply with the probation conditions. In December 2005, probation officer Michael Downs reported that Jasud was in possession of marijuana and alcohol. Jasud was sentenced to three months in jail in January 2006, and his probation was partially revoked.

In March 2006, 10 days after his release from jail, Jasud was involved in a three-vehicle accident that injured Christine Abbot of Mexico and Nina Langervin of Dixfield. Jasud was critically injured in the accident.

Patrolman Rusty Daley of the Dixfield Police Department said he observed Jasud doing 55 mph in a 25 mph zone shortly before the accident. Under the terms of probation, Jasud’s license was permanently revoked. He had been driving a car owned by his girlfriend.

Porter said he will be relying on the written evaluation from Riverview, which will arrive in July, to see if Jasud understands the charges, and will then decide how he will proceed with the matter. He said the charges stemming from the 2006 accident will be addressed at a different time from the probation violation.

Assistant District Attorney Joe O’Connor said the state will continue to seek the maximum sentence related to the probation violation.

“We are certainly looking for a full revocation on his probation,” he said.