SAN DIEGO (CNS) – An autopsy has determined that the death last winter of a San Diego jail inmate stemmed from the cumulative effects of long-term drug use, authorities reported today.<\/p>\n
Deputies and a nurse distributing medication at San Diego Central Jail
at about 4:30 a.m. on Feb. 18 found Irving Pineda, 35, slumped over a table
in his cell, seemingly in “medical distress,” according to the San Diego
County Sheriff’s Office.<\/p>\n
Jailers performed CPR on Pineda prior to the arrival of paramedics,
who took him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead later that morning, sheriff’s Lt. Juan Marquez said.<\/p>\n
The county Medical Examiner’s Office has determined that Pineda died of chronic substance abuse, complicated by the combined toxic effects of buprenorphine, diazepam, methamphetamine and phenylephrine. <\/p>\n
Hypertensive cardiovascular disease was a significant contributing factor, according to the agency, which classified his manner of death as accidental. <\/p>\n
At the time of his fatal medical emergency, Pineda had been in jail for six days on suspicion of grand theft and violation of a court order.<\/p>\n
“The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office extends its condolences to the
Pineda family and all those affected by his passing,” sheriff’s Lt. Juan
Marquez said. “A sheriff’s family-liaison officer will continue to support the family during this difficult time.”<\/p>\n
The Sheriff’s Office, which runs the county’s jails, has been under scrutiny for years due to its unusually high number of in-custody deaths. In 2022, the California State Auditor’s Office found “deficiencies with how the (county agency) provides care for and protects incarcerated individuals (that) likely contributed to in-custody deaths.”<\/p>\n
That audit examined 185 deaths within the San Diego-area jail system from 2006 through 2020, a rate that exceeded all of California’s other large counties during the same period. Nineteen in-custody deaths occurred in the county in 2022 alone, and another six took place in 2023.<\/p>\n
The Sheriff’s Office has committed to a $500 million effort to modernize and upgrade its jails.<\/p>\n
In a statement released last October, the agency asserted that
“significant improvements” — including installation of modern camera systems capable of longer video retention — had been made to the jail system in recent years. Additional upgrades, however, will require substantial government funding, sheriff’s officials stated.<\/p>\n
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