Suicide attempt foiled at jail Piscataquis guards rescue inmate

DOVER-FOXCROFT – Less than two weeks after an inmate hanged himself in the Piscataquis County Jail, a second inmate’s attempt at suicide was foiled Thursday by guards.

Robert Damien Dellairo, 25, of Bangor, an inmate being boarded at the Piscataquis County Jail for Penobscot County, was discovered at 9:30 a.m. with a noose around his neck hanging from a shower head, Piscataquis County Sheriff John Goggin said Thursday.

Dellairo, who was breathing and gasping for air when guards rescued him, was taken by ambulance to Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft.

He was released from Mayo on Thursday afternoon and was taken to the Penobscot County Jail, according to a Piscataquis jail official.

Dellairo’s cellmates alerted guards that something was wrong, according to Goggin. The cell mates thought it was unusual for Dellairo to go into the shower with his clothing on, and they shouted to the guards.

“He had been there less than a minute,” Goggin said, before the guards hoisted Dellairo’s body up while another guard untied the knot. Dellairo left no suicide note behind, the sheriff said.

Dellairo’s suicide attempt follows a hanging on April 4 that took the life of Richard Prado, 34, of Brownville.

Prado was being held on sex-related charges and tampering with a witness or informant. Goggin said Prado tied his bedsheet into knots, placed a noose around his neck and tied the other end over a doorknob and sat down. Prado, whose body never touched the floor, was dead when officers discovered his body, he said.

Dellairo was being boarded at the jail for 30 days on a charge of criminal mischief and was at the facility when Prado died, according to Goggin. He said Penobscot County Jail officials had requested Dellairo be held after his first sentence was completed so he could serve another sentence for burglary and theft. He had been unable to post bail of $10,000 or $1,000 surety on the criminal mischief charge.

An internal investigation is being conducted in the suicide attempt, according to Goggin. He said the Department of Corrections, which is conducting an investigation into Prado’s death, has been notified.

Dellairo will not be returned to the Piscataquis County Jail after his hospitalization. Instead, he will be sent to the Penobscot County Jail, Goggin said.