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Jim Avila, Veteran ABC News Correspondent, Dies at 69

ABC cites a long illness as colleagues recall decades of impactful reporting.

Overview

  • ABC News announced his death and offered condolences to his three children, noting he had faced serious health challenges.
  • Family and subsequent reports say he died at home in San Diego after six weeks in hospice, with complications from a fall cited as the immediate cause.
  • He served as White House correspondent from 2012 to 2016 and first reported the U.S.–Cuba diplomatic reopening, earning the WHCA Merriman Smith Award.
  • Across five decades he worked as a 20/20 correspondent and senior law and justice reporter, covering high‑profile trials and major immigration stories.
  • He left ABC in 2021 after receiving a kidney transplant from his brother, returned in 2023 as a senior investigative reporter at San Diego’s KGTV, and earlier was a correspondent on ABC’s 2012 “pink slime” reporting that preceded a 2017 legal settlement.