By Dee Riggs
The Wenatchee World
WENATCHEE, Wash. — An autopsy of an inmate who died in jail after a struggle with corrections officers concludes that he died of “excited delirium” and heart disease, police say.
The autopsy, released to police Wednesday from the coroner’s office, was the last piece of a now-complete police investigation that will be reviewed by the Chelan County Prosecutor and state Attorney General.
Jesse Avina Morales, 21, died June 29 in Chelan County Regional Justice Center and “the initial investigation revealed no obvious cause of death,” Capt. Doug Jones of the Wenatchee Police Department said Wednesday in a news release.
Avina “became unresponsive and died following an extended struggle with correctional officers attempting to restrain him,” Jones said in the news release.
“Excited delirium is characterized by agitation, aggression, acute distress and sudden death,” Jones said. “It remains an unfortunate phenomena commonly associated with law enforcement efforts to take into custody or restrain highly aggressive individuals.”
A toxicology report found no drugs in his system, Jones said.
The autopsy report also concludes that a contributing factor to Morales’s death was hypertensive heart disease.
Nine corrections officers attempted to restrain Avina in the Chelan County Regional Justice Center for 15 minutes before they got him into a restraint chair where he “became unresponsive” June 29, police say.
Avina was still breathing and had a pulse when he was placed in the restraint chair, a nurse on duty at the jail told investigators. A news release Aug. 3 from the Wenatchee Police Department said that Avina’s heart stopped while he was in an ambulance on the way to Central Washington Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Avina, who was booked into the jail June 27 on suspicion of violating a domestic violence no-contact order, was acting erratically on June 29, jailers told police. The man was kept in a holding cell near the booking area and, because of his behavior, was not moved to the general population area.
Sgt. Jim West with the Wenatchee Police Department said Avina was verbally confrontational, was getting on top of a sink and jumping off, and was throwing himself against a door and the walls.
“Four correctional officers moved into the cell to restrain him but were unable to control him and were pushed out of the cell into the booking area,” the press release continued.
Five more officers then assisted placing Avina in a restraint chair, which sits a person upright but restrains his arms, legs and torso.
“Though he continued to resist while being placed in the chair, once in the chair, he stopped resisting and became unresponsive,” the news release said.
“Immediately following the struggle, while under the care of a nurse, Ballard Ambulance was called to transport him to Central Washington Hospital for a mental health evaluation. … Once inside the ambulance, monitors indicated his heart had stopped and CPR was initiated. CPR continued without success for approximately 27 minutes.”
An autopsy, performed July 1, showed no trauma to the body.
“Excited delirium is characterized by agitation, aggression, acute distress and sudden death,” Jones said. “It remains an unfortunate phenomena commonly associated with law enforcement efforts to take into custody or restrain highly aggressive individuals.”