Inmate found dead inside cell at Main Jail
The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office has launched a joint investigation with prosecutors
SAN JOSE >> Authorities are investigating an in-custody death at the Santa Clara County Main Jail in San Jose.
The 52-year-old male inmate was found unresponsive in his cell about 11:20 a.m. Monday, according to Deputy Jessica Gabaldon of the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office.
In a news release Tuesday, Gabaldon said deputies and medical personnel at the jail gave the inmate CPR and used an automated external defibrillator to try to resuscitate him. San Jose firefighters and paramedics arrived a short time later and continued lifesaving measures.
The inmate was pronounced dead about 11:55 a.m. Monday, according to Gabaldon.
Gabaldon said the Sheriff’s Office is following standard protocol for an in-custody death, which includes but is not limited to a joint investigation between Sheriff’s Office detectives and District Attorney’s Office investigators, as well as the medical examiner-coroner’s office.
The Sheriff’s Office did not disclose the inmate’s name but said he was booked into jail on rape and other felony charges May 1.
Relatives identified the inmate as Roger Jones.
His niece, Lakesha Magee, said the family found out about the death from other inmates and later confirmed it with the coroner’s office. Magee wanted to know why the Sheriff’s Office didn’t notify the family right away.
“That’s my biggest concern,” she said.
Reached by email, Gabaldon said the coroner’s office handled the notification. She referred additional questions about the process to the coroner’s office.
The coroner’s office confirmed that it, not the Sheriff’s Office, is responsible for making death notifications and said it made multiple attempts to contact Jones’ family in person and by phone using the information it had. The family ended up calling the cor
oner’s office after speaking with inmates and contacting the Sheriff’s Office, which provided a phone number.
The family also wants to know why Jones died. He was in good spirits when he talked with his sister Sunday night, Magee said, adding that the charges against her uncle were going to be dropped next month.
“It was a happy call,” she said.
Magee said an investigator at the coroner’s office told the family Jones had complained of a toothache and was given medicine shortly before he was found unresponsive in his cell.
Jones’ official cause of death is under investigation, according to the coroner’s office.
Magee described her uncle as “the life of the party” and a “family man who loved his kids.” Jones was also known to hand out $5bills to his nieces and nephews, she said.
In the news release, Gabaldon said the Sheriff’s Office will not release additional information until it has confirmed the inmate’s next of kin was notified and it has additional information from the investigation.