Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley on Tuesday asked a court to remove embattled Mississippi County Sheriff Cory Hutcheson after an inmate died Friday.
The Attorney General's Office filed charges of assault, robbery and forgery against the sheriff last month.
Hawley said in a news release Tuesday "an inmate at the Mississippi County jail died following an altercation in which Hutcheson participated, despite the fact Hutcheson's license as sheriff has been suspended."
Hutcheson had continued to handle administrative duties at the sheriff's office over the past several weeks.
Hawley said he has directed his office to open a full investigation into the incident.
"In the meantime, we are asking the court to strip Hutcheson of his office of sheriff and prevent him from interfering in any way with our investigation and other law-enforcement efforts," Hawley said in the release.
Mississippi County Coroner Terry Parker said Tory Sanders, 28, of Nashville, Tennessee, died at 8:08 p.m. Friday shortly after being taken by ambulance to the Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston, Missouri.
Parker said he was notified of Sanders' death by a nurse at the hospital.
"I determined there was a need for an autopsy," he said Tuesday. "There was no apparent cause of death."
A forensic pathologist performed the autopsy Saturday in Farmington, Missouri, Parker said.
Results were incomplete, and there were "no signs of traumatic injury," the coroner said.
There was no evidence Sanders was Tasered or placed in a choke hold, Parker said.
It will take several weeks before a toxicology report will be available that may help determine the cause of death, Parker said.
Parker said the Missouri State Highway Patrol is investigating the incident.
According to Parker, Sanders had a history of mental illness.
Parker said Charleston, Missouri, police earlier Friday detained Sanders and took him to the Mississippi County Detention Center.
He apparently became agitated, Parker said.
"I think attempts were made to restrain him, and then he collapsed in that process," Parker said, adding his information is based on what jail personnel told him.
Parker said Sanders may have had "some type of psychotic episode" that would have made him difficult to restrain.