On the morning of August 7, 2022, Christian Littrell was arrested by Rockford Police on a warrant for traffic related offenses and transported to the Winnebago County Jail where he was held pending a bond hearing with Judge Phillip Nicolosi.
According to an August 8 memorandum from State’s Attorney J. Hanley, Christian showed signs of distress, barely moving in bed and vomiting multiple times onto the floor. The following day, he was moved to the jail’s medical wing and placed in a camera monitored room.
The memorandum states that from 11:17 AM to 5:30 PM Christian could be seen repositioning in bed multiple times, but from 5:30 to 8:58 PM he did not move at all. Corrections Officer Michael Marchini, who was overseeing the medical wing from 5:56 PM to 8:58 PM observed that Christian appeared to be sleeping. After noticing he had not moved for about three hours Marchini entered the room, attempted to wake him without success, and then called a medical code. Officers attempted CPR.
At 9:16 PM Christian was placed on a stretcher and transported to Swedish American Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Christian’s death was at least the second of five deaths in the Winnebago County Jail investigated by the Winnebago Boone County Integrity Task Force in 2022. This was the 28th case investigated and deemed justified by the task force, as well as the 8th deadly force incident of the 2020s and the 17th since Tom McNamara took office.