![\"Brandon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SUT-L-Jail-Deaths-06.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA new filing in the lawsuit over the murder of 24-year-old Brandon Yates alleges jail staff ignored clear warning signs that the man who killed him was too dangerous to be housed with others.<\/p>\n
The amended complaint, filed Jan. 16 in federal court by Yates\u2019 parents, lays out a detailed timeline of the weeks leading up to the killing, documenting repeated opportunities for jail staff to intervene as Alvin Ruis \u2014 a man with a history of psychosis, violence and self-harm \u2014 deteriorated.<\/p>\n
Yates was arrested on Jan. 15, 2024, after being found sleeping in a backyard shed. He had struggled with mental illness and substance use, his parents said, but was trying to turn his life around.<\/p>\n
Less than 24 hours after he was booked into jail, Yates was found dead in the cell he shared with Ruis.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt never occurred to me that his life was at risk,\u201d Yates\u2019 mother, Andrea Carrier, told the San Diego Union-Tribune in an interview last year.<\/p>\n
The amended complaint \u2014 which names the county of San Diego, Sheriff Kelly Martinez, jail medical contractor NaphCare and more than a dozen deputies and mental health clinicians as defendants \u2014 details Ruis\u2019 escalating psychiatric crisis in the weeks before he killed Yates.<\/p>\n
Spokespeople for the county and Sheriff\u2019s Office declined to comment on the new filing, citing active litigation.<\/p>\n
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Prior to his arrest on Dec. 27, 2023, Ruis had been involuntarily hospitalized multiple times for psychosis, had assaulted family members and attacked a flight attendant midair as he tried to flee the country.<\/p>\n
In jail, he threatened deputies and other incarcerated people and attempted suicide multiple times, the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n
Despite this behavior, the lawsuit says, mental health staff never recommended Ruis be placed in the jail\u2019s psychiatric stabilization unit, where he would receive a higher level of care and monitoring. Nor did anyone respond to his request to \u201cget back on\u201d the antipsychotic medication Seroquel.<\/p>\n
According to the filing, Ruis begged multiple clinicians for the medication. He also reported hearing voices and believed deputies were out to get him.<\/p>\n
On at least four occasions, he was placed in a safety cell or enhanced observation housing because he was deemed a danger to himself or others. The day before he killed Yates, Ruis asked a mental health clinician to put him in \u201clevel seven protective custody.\u201d The jail\u2019s administrative separation unit is on the seventh floor.<\/p>\n
The amended complaint alleges that more than a dozen mental health staff and deputies had access to Ruis\u2019 records and firsthand knowledge that he had become progressively more violent and delusional over his nearly three weeks in jail.<\/p>\n
It also alleges that jail classification deputies failed to upgrade Ruis\u2019 security level, even after he assaulted a deputy and threatened others. Had Ruis been reclassified from Level 3 to Level 4, the lawsuit says, jail policy would have prohibited him from being housed with Yates.<\/p>\n
Ruis had also been designated a \u201cbypass\u201d or \u201ckeep separate\u201d inmate \u2014 a classification meant for people who can\u2019t safely be around others. Deputies who placed Yates in Ruis\u2019 cell would have been required under department policy to confirm whether shared housing was allowed, the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n
Deputies moved Yates into Ruis\u2019 cell on Jan. 16 after two men warned a deputy that \u201cthere would be trouble\u201d if Yates was not removed from their housing unit. The lawsuit says Yates was disoriented and \u201cbabbling nonstop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once Yates was inside Ruis\u2019 cell, the lawsuit says, the men began arguing about religion and things quickly escalated. Ruis later told an investigator that he believed Yates was the devil and that God had given him permission to kill him.<\/p>\n
During the attack, Yates repeatedly pressed the cell\u2019s emergency call button, the lawsuit alleges, and begged deputies over the intercom to intervene, but no one came. Men in nearby cells also yelled for help, the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n
According to the complaint, deputies either ignored the calls or muted the intercom system.<\/p>\n
Ruis placed Yates in a chokehold, poured liquid soap into his nose and mouth and smothered him with a blanket until he died, the lawsuit says. Afterward, Ruis stripped Yates\u2019 body and arranged it to resemble Jesus\u2019 crucifixion.<\/p>\n
Ruis later told investigators he staged the scene to show that Yates\u2019 death was not a suicide.<\/p>\n
The amended complaint alleges that Yates\u2019 death resulted from \u201cdeliberate indifference\u201d by jail staff who repeatedly ignored warning signs \u2014 an argument a federal judge has already found plausible.<\/p>\n
In an Aug. 21 order declining to dismiss the case<\/a>, U.S. District Judge Thomas J. Whelan wrote that \u201cthe right to be free from inmate-on-inmate violence is clearly established.\u201d<\/p>\n