PORTLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER) - There are new questions surrounding the death of an inmate inside the Cumberland County Jail.
Portland Police and jail officials are investigating the death of 24-year old Nikco Walton, who died last week.
Walton's attorney says officials at the jail told her he died of an overdose after swallowing a drug filled balloon before his arrest. Walton died inside the Cumberland County Jail a week ago Monday, six days after was he arrested on cocaine possession charges and taken into custody.
Sheriff Kevin Joyce says the drug filled balloon theory is something inmates were reporting. He says his jail administrator told Walton's attorney it was something they were looking into.
"It's a possibility that this person may have swallowed a balloon sometime. The jail administrator's response was, we're hearing the rumors too, there's an open investigation, but we don't know the cause of death at this point", he said.
Walton's attorney Amy Fairfield says it's unlikely a person could have that inside their system for 6-days, the amount of time Walton was in custody before he died.
"It is a very rare occurrence that that would happen, certainly it could happen, but rare and unlikely, yes”, she said.
The state medical examiner's office is handling the autopsy and will determine a cause of death. It could be weeks before the toxicology test results come back.