Citizen Report No. 1652912991 - 1419469372

Detention center officials said Jesse Paul Knight was charged Tuesday with destruction or falsification of records and willful neglect of duty in connection with Gabriel Yalartai's death.

Around 4:20 a.m. Dec. 26, a detention officer found Yalartai in his cell and started CPR after what appeared to be an attempted suicide, officials said. The charge nurse arrived and pronounced Yalartai dead.

Oklahoma County Detention Center officials said investigators learned that the detention officer failed to conduct site checks of Yalartai during his shift.

Authorities fired Knight from the Oklahoma County Detention Center the next day.

Knight discovered the suicide at 4:21 a.m. on Dec. 26 while serving breakfast to inmates, the investigator wrote in the affidavit.

“Officer Knight, after inmate Yalartai was discovered, falsified logbooks by hand writing in sight check entries that did not occur,” the investigator wrote.

“He admitted that he was not present at his duty station and instead went to the prison reception and other floors for several hours instead of carrying out his duties” , wrote the investigator. “Officer Knight was not assigned by a supervisor to assist at reception and did not arrange for another detention officer to cover his sight checks when he abandoned his post.”