Man, 22, dies in custody at Oregon prison

Published 3:00 pm Friday, June 30, 2023

A 22-year-old man died inside his cell Thursday night at the Oregon State Correctional Institution in Salem.

Prison staff performed CPR on Grayson Painter until paramedics arrived. Painter died at 7:30 p.m. inside his cell, said Betty Bernt, an Oregon Department of Corrections spokesperson.

The Oregon State Police’s Medical Examiner will determine Painter’s cause of death, Bernt said.

Painter was arrested in May; a Hillsboro police officer said he appeared to be under the influence of methamphetamine when officers attempted to arrest him on a warrant May 9, according to court records.

Painter was sentenced May 23 to two years in prison in Washington County Circuit Court for a charge of assaulting a public-safety officer.

Painter is the second young person to die in Oregon custody in recent weeks.

Donovan Anthony Wood, 26, died May 2 at Multnomah County’s Inverness Jail after being found unresponsive in his cell at the northeast Portland facility.

The Multnomah County Medical Examiner’s Office is investigating and will determine Wood’s cause of death. A toxicology test was ordered that could take up to eight months to complete, according to Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Chris Liedle.

Wood was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center on Dec. 20 after allegedly attacking a man with a pick ax, trying to slit his own throat and setting a fire at his sister’s northwest Portland home.

Wood’s sister told police that she suspected her brother had used meth, according to a probable cause affidavit.