Brandon Daniels died from Tylenol overdose, inquest told

A coroner's inquest started Monday for a 19-year-old man found dead in a Saskatoon jail cell in 2010.

During the first day the inquest heard from Sgt. Randy Huisman, who said Daniels died from a drug overdose after taking too many Tylenol pills. He said Daniels bought two bottles of the pain medication, which contained 650 pills each, at a drug store. 

Huisman said symptoms of a Tylenol overdose can take up to a week to show up and, if untreated, become fatal.

Daniels ended up in police custody as a result of officers responding to a complaint that Daniels was intoxicated. After he was picked up by officers, he was placed in a cell at the Saskatoon Police Service Detention Centre. Twelve hours later, he was found dead.

His mother, Sherry Bird, said he suffered from an undiagnosed mental illness, which left him glassy-eyed and confused. She hopes changes to how the criminal justice system deals with mental illness come from the inquest.

"Everybody deserves to be treated like a human, and not just thrown in a cell and left there for 12 hours, and it's just not right," Bird said. "We're hoping to change attitudes about mental health — and not just mental health but attitudes about how to treat people, intoxicated or not."

Coroner Alma Wiebe is overseeing the inquest, which is expected to last a week.