Details murky on prison inmate’s suicide
Las Cruces man, 20, was in restrictive housing when he was found hanging July 23
Prison officials weren’t saying much about the circumstances surrounding the death of a 20-year-old inmate who hanged himself last week with a sheet tied to a light fixture at the Penitentiary of New Mexico outside Santa Fe.
New Mexico State Police spokeswoman Lt. Elizabeth Armijo earlier this week confirmed that Isaiah Cabrales of Las Cruces was “discovered hanging and unresponsive by a correction officer” on July 23.
“Immediately after he was discovered, jail personnel attempted CPR and life saving measures,” Armijo said in an email, adding that state police investigators arrived as the prison paramedics were already transporting Cabrales to a hospital.
Armijo on Tuesday confirmed that Cabrales was “taken off life support on Thursday, July 26, and is deceased.”
New Mexico Corrections Department spokesman S.U. Mahesh said Cabrales entered state prison on May 3, 2017, and was serving a four-year sentence out of Doña Ana County for battery on a peace officer, battery, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, tampering with evidence and possession of a controlled substance.
Mahesh confirmed that Cabrales was being kept in the prison’s “restrictive housing unit,” which generally means a prisoner is in solitary confinement about 23 hours a day. But Mahesh declined to reveal why the inmate was in restrictive housing and whether he had expressed suicidal thoughts. Mahesh referred questions to Armijo, who said the state’s investigation into the case is closed and she had no further information.
Corrections Department Secretary David Jablonski did not respond to messages seeking comment on the death.
A letter that Cabrales had sent to the Doña Ana Magistrate Court in January indicated the Las Cruces man was looking toward his scheduled release date in December 2019.
In the letter, Cabrales asked the court to allow him to apply credit for time served to fines he owed the court.
“I’m accept this punishment,” Cabrales wrote. “… I’m not a perfect person. But I’m not those ones owh [sic] butter you up with lies. … I’m not perfect but I’m getting out on parole and I’m asking you to find it in your heart for credit for time served. I’m getting out of this environment. I know I’m a changed person and these cold nights I spend in prison I think to myself I’m never coming back.”
Court records paint a picture of Cabrales as a man who was impulsive and violent and may have had mental health issues, but was quick to admit his wrongdoings. He pleaded guilty or
admitted his criminal actions to police officers almost immediately in nearly every case.
He was charged with his first felony, battery on a health care worker, in 2016 for punching a person at Peak Behavioral Health Hospital when he was 18 years old.
The Sunland Park Police Department detective who investigated the incident wrote in his report that when confronted, Cabrales agreed to speak without an attorney and admitted punching the worker, saying he “felt like he was disrespected” and “advised he takes full responsibility for his actions.”
Cabrales continued to pick up new charges, mostly battery, for the next two years before taking a plea deal in early 2017 that sent him to the penitentiary. While awaiting trial in the first case, Cabrales picked up two more charges of battery on a peace officer.
In that case, out of El Paso, the officer wrote that when he and another officer responded to a Village Inn restaurant over a report of a disorderly male, they took Cabrales into “protective custody.”
The officers said they transported him to a nearby medical center, but Cabrales “became upset that he was not being charged with a crime,” and asked if he would be charged with a felony if he struck the officer.
Upon being told he would, the officer wrote in his report, Cabrales — who was handcuffed to a bed — kicked the officer in the chest. When told he would be charged with a felony, the officer wrote that Cabrales said “all right cool,” then kicked the other officer in his arm saying “that’s another one.”
In one case, Cabrales admitted holding a knife to the throat of someone he thought had stolen his machete, according to court records, and when confronted by police, showed officers where he had tossed the knife after the incident.
Cabrales picked up almost as many charges while in the Doña Ana County Detention Center while awaiting trial as he had on the outside. While in jail, he was accused of battering two corrections officers and three inmates. Three of those cases were dismissed.