A Fayette County grand jury

has declined to indict a deputy sheriff on involuntary manslaughter charges

for the death of an inmate back at the Fayette County Jail in August.

David Lee Martin is preparing

to return to full duty after being on paid leave since the incident that

led to the death of inmate James Lee Eppinger, said Maj. Bruce Jordan

of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department. According to initial reports,

Eppinger was being transported elsewhere in the building when an altercation

broke out.

Martin, who is a road deputy,

was on desk duty when he was called by the jail to assist in handling

Eppinger, Jordan said. The incident was caught on videotape, he added.

"It was just one of those

freak things that happened," Jordan said.

Now that the criminal investigation

is complete, an administrative inquiry will be conducted over a few days

to determine if Martin broke any internal regulations, Jordan added.

According to the indictment

prosecutors sought, Martin was assisting other jail personnel in handcuffing

Eppinger so he could be moved to a detention cell. Prosecutors claimed

Martin used "deadly force" in subduing Eppinger by squeezing

and pulling on his neck, which cut off the flow of oxygen to his brain.

Prosecutors sought to indict

Martin last week for felony and misdemeanor counts of involuntary manslaughter

and a misdemeanor count of reckless conduct relating to the death of James

Lee Eppinger, who was an inmate at the jail. The "no bill" decision

returned by the grand jury essentially means it felt there wasn't enough

evidence for Martin to stand trial on the criminal charges.

Almost a day and a half was

dedicated to presenting witnesses to the grand jury from a witness list

of 25 people including jail personnel and inmates.

The case was presented to the

grand jury by Gray Conger, a district attorney from Columbus who was chosen

to serve after local district attorney William McBroom recused himself

from the case.

Conger said he felt the evidence

warranted being heard before a grand jury consisting of Fayette County

residents.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation

investigated the incident thoroughly, Conger noted. The Citizen requested

a copy of that case file, but was told the case wouldn't be closed for

another week and therefore the file could not be provided.