JEFFERSON, Ohio — The Cuyahoga County Coroner’s Office is expected to make a preliminary ruling today in the apparent suicide of a former Medina County assistant public defender.

An investigator with the Ashtabula County Coroner’s Office said Sean O’Toole, who was awaiting sentencing on child pornography charges, was found by a corrections officer hanging by a sheet in his Ashtabula County Jail cell Thursday morning. The 42-year-old Lakewood resident was pronounced dead at 5:35 a.m.

Court records show Sean O’Toole was the subject of an FBI investigation starting in January 2009 that found he was sharing images of child pornography. O’Toole was arrested in May on charges of receipt and distribution of child pornography. He faced up to 20 years in prison and was scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 26.

O’Toole originally pleaded not guilty to the charge in June, but changed his plea to guilty in September.

As an assistant public defender, O’Toole represented indigent juvenile defendants in Medina County Juvenile Court and previously represented adult defendants in Medina Municipal Court.