URBANA — A former homeless activist who was sentenced to prison Monday for sexually molesting a child apparently killed himself in the Champaign County jail last week. 

Sheriff Dan Walsh said mental health professionals had not raised any concerns that Jesse Masengale, 24, a native of Paxton, was planning to harm himself.

Walsh said Mr. Masengale was found hanged in the shower area of the satellite jail on Lierman Avenue in east Urbana about 3:30 a.m. May 24. He had used a strip of fabric apparently torn from a bedsheet. After emergency treatment there, he was taken to Carle Foundation Hospital and pronounced dead at 4:19 a.m.

The area he was in is also the bathroom area and is open for the inmates to use at any time. Walsh said there was “no reason to believe that any other individuals were involved.”

Twelve hours earlier, Mr. Masengale had been sentenced to 30 years in prison for molesting an 8-year-old girl who was the child of a woman with whom Mr. Masengale had a relationship.

Mr. Masengale pleaded guilty in April to two counts of predatory criminal sexual assault, admitting to sex acts that occurred with the girl in an Urbana home between November 2009 and September 2010.

Judge Tom Difanis imposed sentences of 15 years on each count. Because the acts alleged were separate, the sentences for each had to be served one after the other.

Assistant State's Attorney Duke Harris said the girl and her mother submitted emotionally charged victim impact statements for the judge to consider. The girl's statement referred to her fear of Mr. Masengale, and both mother and daughter wrote of the betrayal they felt. 

The girl had told her mother of the abuse last fall, and she immediately reported it to Urbana police. Mr. Masengale was arrested Sept. 20 and had been in the county jail since.

Walsh said Mr. Masengale had been housed in an open dormitory-like setting with about 30 other prisoners and had "no significant problems while at the jail.”

Walsh said after the sentencing he was interviewed by mental health professionals.

"The mental health professionals indicated he didn't have any problems and did not suggest any special accommodations,” said State's Attorney Julia Ritz, who was conferring with Walsh about Mr. Masengale's death.

Although he couldn't say exactly when Mr. Masengale would have been checked last, Walsh said "in general the whole place is checked every half-hour."

"Unless an inmate exhibits significant problems, they have to be given some degree of privacy. They have to be given clothes, bed clothes. They are entitled to some basic comforts,” the sheriff said. "Unfortunately, you're never going to stop all of these.”

Mr. Masengale, who had no prior criminal convictions, was represented by Urbana attorney Bob Auler. Auler compared his client to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

He said Mr. Masengale had readily admitted his criminal behavior but had a kind-hearted side that ministered to those in need. "Half of this man was really good,” Auler said.

Auler called two friends of Mr. Masengale's from the Catholic Worker House in Champaign to testify on his behalf Monday. 

Mr. Masengale was active in helping set up a tent city for homeless people in late May 2009 in the backyard of the Catholic Worker House, 317 S. Randolph St., Champaign.

The tent city brought much attention to the plight of the homeless but was short-lived at that location because of zoning violations and complaints from neighbors. The community eventually transformed itself into an advocacy group known as Safe Haven.

After stays at a Mahomet campground, a couple of Champaign churches and Restoration Urban Ministries, 1213 Parkland Court, Champaign, Safe Haven disbanded about a year later because organizers and supporters said its members lost energy and didn't have the "human or financial capacity" to establish a more permanent community.

Auler said Mr. Masengale's friends testified that even before setting up the tent city, Mr. Masengale had spent money he earned as a roofer, both in the state of Washington and locally, to provide an apartment for street people to use. 

"He was committed to the less fortunate in a real way that cost him. It was almost like a mini-monastery in a way. The monasteries provided sanctuary to anyone who was hungry and in need of a place to sleep,” Auler said.

"He was not a perfect man, and he readily admitted from his arrest what he had done,” he said.

Auler said he thought from visiting his client in the jail that "He was coming around.”

"He mentioned that some of the riffraff had been transferred, and that gave me hope he was going to be able to handle it. He was shattered in the courtroom,” Auler said.

Mr. Masengale was aware that prison was the only option for the charges to which he had pleaded guilty.

Harris made no specific recommendation for a number of years for Mr. Masengale, acknowledging he had spared the victim and her mother the pain of going through a jury trial. Auler asked for a sentence near the minimum of 12 years.

"The only aggravating factor the court found was the need to send a message that this won't be tolerated,” Auler said. “I have a hard time with deterrence as an aggravating factor.”

The last suicide at the Champaign County jail happened in June 2009. Three suicides in 2004 prompted Walsh and the county board to contract for professional mental health counseling for inmates.

mschenk@news-gazette.com