Sheriff: Inmate dies after Nassau jail fight

A prisoner at the Nassau County jail died Saturday morning after a fight with another inmate, authorities said.

The fight happened at 6:45 a.m., and the man, Antwan Brown, 26, of Long Beach, was declared dead at nearby Nassau University Medical Center about an hour later, police said.

Brown, who records show pleaded guilty Wednesday in a November 2010 assault case, had suffered "contusions about his body" in the fight, police said. No official cause of death has been released.

The other inmate hasn't been identified but criminal charges are pending against him, said Sheriff Michael Sposato, who runs the jail in East Meadow.

"He'll be charged accordingly," depending on investigators' findings, Sposato said.

The state Commission of Correction, the government body that regulates lockups across New York State, will look into the homicide, said Janine Kava, a commission spokeswoman. The commission investigates all deaths that aren't of natural causes in these facilities.

Nassau's jail can house about 1,500 inmates.

Brown was in jail for the November 2010 assault in which he was accused of beating a woman and trying to steal her bag in West Hempstead. He hurt a police officer at the Fifth Precinct while under arrest, police said.

Last week, he pleaded guilty to attempted assault on a police officer in that case. The other charges were covered by that plea, records show.

Brown was paroled in September 2010 from state prison. As a Long Beach High School senior, he'd been imprisoned in connection with a shooting outside an Island Park nightclub in October 2004, records show.

Brown's relatives couldn't be reached for comment.