Cobb Sheriff’s Office: Jail inmate dies after heroin binge

The Cobb Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday that an inmate has died after overdosing on heroin.Cobb Sheriff's Office

A release sent by the Sheriff’s office said James Martin, 41, of Mableton, died shortly after 9 a.m. Wednesday.

He was arrested on Friday for possession of methamphetamine and told deputies that he was a heroin addict who “had just binged the substance,” the release said, adding that he was sent to the jail’s infirmary.

On Wednesday morning, according to the release, Martin told medical staff he wasn’t feeling well and had a seizure.

Life-saving attempts included the use of Narcan, but Martin died in an ambulance en route to a hospital, the Sheriff’s office said.

“Heroin, meth, fentanyl, and other opioids have tragically taken so many lives in Cobb County, causing irreparable harm to families,” Cobb Sheriff Craig Owens said in the release.

The Sheriff’s Office said the Georgia Bureau of Investigation will be conducting an investigation of Martin’s death.

Martin is the first Cobb inmate to die this year and the seventh since Owens took office in 2021.

Three inmates died in May 2022, the last a woman who had been on suicide watch. Three other inmates died in 2021.

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