Overview
- The sheriff’s office identified the man as Enrique Gonsalez-Cruz and said he was pronounced dead at 2:31 p.m. after being found unresponsive at the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse.
- Investigators have opened a case, and the official cause of death will be determined by a forensic pathologist.
- Officials have not disclosed supervision details or the precise location, while sources say he was alone in a holding cell near a courtroom.
- Gonsalez-Cruz had been arrested Dec. 12 by California Highway Patrol on suspicion of vehicle theft and booked into Santa Rita Jail.
- An oversight attorney said the sheriff’s office reported no documented mental-health or suicidal history for him, and this is the county’s third in-custody death this year.