Omar Moreno Arroyo, the first inmate to die in San Diego County custody this year, choked to death on a face mask while inside a holding cell, awaiting release on a charge of being under the influence of drugs, an autopsy has concluded.
The Medical Examiner’s Office said Arroyo’s death occurred despite aggressive life-saving measures on the part of Sheriff’s Department employees and paramedics. The manner of death was ruled an accident.
“There were no illicit drugs, no prescription medications, no alcoholic beverages, no tobacco products, and no notes of a suicidal nature found,” Medical Examiner Investigator Scott Morrison wrote in a report that accompanied the autopsy.
Arroyo, who was 33 and lived in Julian, was arrested by sheriff’s deputies Jan. 6 on suspicion of being under the influence of methamphetamine.
His widow, Tammy Wilson, had called 911 that morning because her husband was acting strangely and would not allow her to take him to the hospital. Arroyo died in a jail holding cell shortly before midnight.
The findings were released late last week, days after Wilson said in a San Diego Union-Tribune story that the Sheriff’s Department had sealed the case within hours of her husband’s death and refused for months to tell her what happened to him.
The 13-page autopsy and investigative findings raised questions that a sheriff’s spokeswoman did not answer.
Specifically the report says a sheriff’s detective told Morrison that Arroyo had possibly swallowed a baggie of drugs prior to his arrest but omitted any mention of the face mask that apparently killed him.
“Jail staff informed me that there appeared to be a foreign object in his abdomen on an x-ray that appears to be (a) possible ‘baggy’ of illicit substance,” Morrison wrote.
The autopsy found no baggie nor sign of drugs in Arroyo’s stomach, though he tested positive for methamphetamine. It found the face mask.
The same report notes that video footage from inside a holding cell shows Arroyo sitting on a bench before collapsing forward onto the floor and experiencing “seizure-like activity.”
Despite the existence of video footage, there is no mention of what happened in the minutes leading up to Arroyo’s seizure.
Julia Yoo, a San Diego attorney who represents Wilson, read the autopsy and said she wants to know what happened during the time jail staff called 911 and paramedics arrived.
“The nurses are on the second floor. This happened on the second floor. There are no references to nursing staff attempting to save Omar’s life,” Yoo said. “There is no time reference as to when Omar fell …. How long was it between the time of the seizure until the deputies got to the cell?”
Based on the report, none of the responding medical staff noticed that Arroyo was choking or had an object lodged in his throat.
It also is unclear why Arroyo was taken to jail.
Under the “zero bail” policy established by the California Judicial Council to reduce jail populations during the COVID-19 pandemic, police and sheriff’s deputies are supposed to cite people for certain crimes instead of taking them into custody.
Arroyo was arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia — a citable offense — and for being under the influence of drugs or alcohol in a public place, despite being in his own home when his wife summoned help.
Also, according to Sheriff’s Department policies, detainees who are suspected of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol “require a protective environment” and “are in need of special observation” due to their condition.
The policies also say that a person suspected of ingesting a foreign object — such as a baggie of drugs — “will be placed on (contraband watch) in a medical isolation cell” or “may necessitate further evaluation at the hospital (emergency department).”
The medical examiner’s report makes no mention of Arroyo being placed in a sobering cell or under medical observation.
The Sheriff’s department has experienced a high number of in-custody deaths in recent years. According to a six-month investigation by the Union-Tribune published in late 2019, more than 140 inmates had died in San Diego County jails since 2009, the year Bill Gore was appointed sheriff.
San Diego County had the highest mortality rate in its jail system than any other large California county, the investigation found.
Jail officials have disputed that, saying San Diego County jail death rates are not outliers and that they are taking measures to improve the health and mental health care provided to inmates.
