THREE MORE INMATE DEATHS CONFIRMED IN COUNTY JAILS

Latest fatalities push year’s total to 12; all three men were awaiting trial

Three more inmates have died in San Diego County jails in recent days, pushing the number of in-custody deaths this year to 12, including eight people who died since early October.

The death toll does not include a 13th inmate who was found unresponsive in his cell in late June and died at a hospital in August — weeks after he was formally released from Sheriff ’s Department custody.

The department confirmed the deaths Friday, 12 days after being asked about the fatalities by The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Neither Sheriff Bill Gore nor department spokesman Lt. Ricardo Lopez responded to questions about the rash of deaths inside San Diego County jails, which for years have recorded the highest mortality rate among the state’s largest counties.

Inmates Antonio Miguel Gonzaba, Edel Corrales Loredo and Lazaro Javier Alvarez all died late last month, according to records released Friday by the Sheriff ’s Department.

Sheriff ’s Department records indicate all three men were awaiting trial. However, according to prosecutors, no charges had yet been filed against Alvarez.

The Sheriff ’s Department, which no longer announces inmate fatalities publicly until internal investigations are completed weeks or months later, is required to inform the California Department of Justice when inmates die in custody.

The Union-Tribune regularly submits California Public Records Act requests to track the ongoing fatalities.

According to the Sheriff ’s Department, Gonzaba was being held at an unspecified jail when he died Nov. 24. He was 39.

District Attorney’s Office records show he was charged in June 2019 with vandalism and failing to

register as a sex offender after being convicted of rape in the 1990s, when he was a teenager.

The cause and manner of Gonzaba’s death were not disclosed.

Loredo, who was 62, was awaiting trial on drug charges when he died in a medical facility Nov. 22. He had been picked up in July on suspicion of possessing and selling methamphetamine, court records show.

The manner and means of Loredo’s death are pending investigation, the Sheriff ’s Department said.

Alvarez died in a jail holding cell on the same day as Loredo, according to the document the Sheriff ’s Department sent to the state. The same record states he was awaiting trial on a trespassing charge, which is typically filed as a misdemeanor offense and does not result in a suspect being booked into jail.

The District Attorney’s Office said it could find no recent records of criminal

charges against Alvarez, who was 40. According to court records, he was the subject of unrelated criminal charges in 2014 and earlier.

The 12 — or 13 — in-custody deaths reported so far this year come as the Sheriff ’s Department has experienced the lowest jail population in years.

One of the department’s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic has been to release as many lower-level inmates as possible. As a result, the population of the seven-facility jail system is now about 4,000 — far fewer than the average of 5,500 or so.

While the department declined to discuss the recent spate of deaths in county jails, Gore and his command staff have repeatedly said even one death is too many and noted they have increased staff, training and healthcare spending.

The deaths and injuries in county jails continue to generate civil lawsuits seeking millions of dollars in damages.