Updated March 12, 2019

The state medical examiner’s office has ruled the manner of death for William Barnard Hawk, the Lincoln County Jail inmate who died last Sept. 15 after an altercation with corrections officers, as a homicide.

It will be up to the district attorney on the case to determine whether it is in the state’s interest to charge the corrections officers involved in the altercation that day at the Lincoln County Jail, according to authorities.

Assigned to the case is District Attorney Brent Cooper, who serves as district attorney general for the 22nd Judicial District, which includes Giles, Lawrence, Maury and Wayne counties. Cooper was appointed to handle the investigation earlier this year after District Attorney Robert Carter, who represents the 17th Judicial District which includes Lincoln, Bedford, Marshall and Moore counties, recused himself from the case.

Carter said at the time that his office could not be involved in the case, because a member of the immediate family of an employee of his office could potentially be called as a witness if the case were to proceed to court. The autopsy results come almost six months after the altercation.