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Autopsy finds High Point inmate died of natural causes

Image of High Point Courthouse via nccourts.gov.

An autopsy has determined that a man who passed away while jailed in High Point last year died of natural causes.

In September, 27-year-old Dakota Stevens was found in his cell unresponsive but still breathing. He was taken to a local hospital, where he died the next day.

An autopsy performed at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem determined that Stevens died from complications of intravenous drug use.

Investigators reported that prior to his arrest, Stevens had been hospitalized with sepsis, but left the treatment against doctor's orders. 

The autopsy found no significant injuries that would have contributed to his death.

Stevens had been in the High Point Detention Center for about a week after being arrested for missing a court appearance.

Guilford County Sheriff's Office officials declined to comment on the case. 

Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.

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