MADISON — A Wilton man accused of putting a gun to a teenager’s head and smoking marijuana with teens was found dead early Wednesday in his cell at the Somerset County Jail.

Corrections officers found Joseph F. Daoust, 27, unresponsive during a routine security check shortly before 2 a.m., Jail Administrator Cory Swope said in a news release.

He said jail staff and emergency personnel could not revive Daoust. He was pronounced dead at the jail.

An autopsy at the Maine State Medical Examiner’s office in Augusta did not determine the cause of death, Swope said, adding that further testing would be required.

Daoust was being held on $10,000 cash bail on felony charges of criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon and two counts of aggravated furnishing of marijuana.

Wilton police arrested Daoust on May 14 and he was booked at the Franklin County Jail in Farmington. Inmates who cannot make bail after being held 72 hours are taken to Somerset County Jail.

Daoust was accused of putting a gun to the head of a 14-year-old boy in a threatening manner, police Chief Heidi Wilcox said on May 15. The incident happened in the woods near Kineowatha Park in Wilton, she said.

Daoust also was accused of smoking marijuana with two 14-year-old boys and giving them some of the drug, Wilcox said.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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