Oviedo Man Arrested on Child Abuse Material Charges Found Dead in Jail Cell

Marshall Derrill Drake, the 36-year-old Oviedo man arrested earlier this month on child sexual abuse material charges, was found unresponsive in his cell at the John E. Polk Correctional Facility in Sanford on Thursday and pronounced dead after staff attempted CPR, the Seminole County Sheriff's Office said.

Deputies reported Drake was discovered hanging from a bedsheet tied around his neck during routine cell checks by jail staff. Although the investigation remains ongoing, preliminary findings indicate the incident was a suicide, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Drake had been in custody only eight days. He was arrested March 5 on allegations of possessing child sexual abuse material, following an investigation that traced back to a November 2025 cybertip submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. According to his arrest report, a messenger app flagged a file suspected to contain child pornography that had been shared through its service. Investigators described the file as a video showing two girls believed to be between 11 and 13 years old.

Drake's arrest was not his first serious legal reckoning. In 2013, while serving as an Army specialist, he was sentenced to more than a decade in military prison for shooting and killing another soldier at a base in Alaska.

The Seminole County Sheriff's Office has not released additional details about the circumstances of the death, including whether Drake had been placed on any form of suicide watch prior to Thursday's discovery. No final ruling from the Seminole County Medical Examiner has been issued, and the investigation is continuing.