Man arrested in Livermore dies in jail, becomes 5th inmate death for Santa Rita in 2023

A 26-year-old inmate died Thursday after suffering what Alameda County sheriff’s officials said was a medical emergency at Santa Rita Jail.

The man was booked into jail on March 28 by Livermore police. He was placed in a cell by himself in the jail’s Restrictive Housing Unit 1 due to what sheriff’s officials said was an “extensive assaultive history on staff.”

During the intake process, the man, whose name was not released, allegedly admitted to using drugs the day before his arrest but “there was no cause for concern found during the medical and mental health intake process,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Friday.

On Thursday at about 10:35 a.m., a deputy allegedly saw him drinking “a profuse amount of water” from the sink in his cell and vomiting.

He was taken to the jail’s Outpatient Housing Unit for observation and at about 3:25 p.m. he was found unresponsive in his bed, sheriff’s officials said.

He was pronounced dead at 4:05 p.m. despite life-saving measures by jail medical staff and paramedics, according to sheriff’s officials.

Sheriff’s Office investigators are trying to find the man’s family, who they think are in Mexico.

The Alameda County Coroner’s Bureau will determine his cause of death. The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office was notified of the death and a report will be submitted to the California Attorney General’s Office.

This marks the fifth inmate death reported for Santa Rita Jail in 2023.

Stephen Lofton, 39, died in a suspected suicide on Jan. 17; Charles Johnson, 45, died at the Stanford hospital in Pleasanton on Feb. 4 after a medical emergency at the jail two days earlier; Elizabeth Laurel, 39, died after being found unresponsive in her cell on Feb. 13; and Candice “Cody” Vanburen, 33, died at an area hospital on March 1 after becoming unresponsive in bed the day before, according to the sheriff’s office.