The Associated Press
YAKIMA, Wash. — A Yakima County jail inmate has died more than a week and a half after being beaten by other prisoners in a cellblock.
The 30-year-old Naches-area man, arrested June 21 for investigation of domestic violence and first-degree assault, died at a hospital early Tuesday of internal injuries, according to a statement issued by the county Corrections Department. An autopsy was pending.
The man was beaten by three or four other inmates on Aug. 9 but apparently didn’t say anything to authorities. Only after he collapsed about four hours later did another inmate pushed an emergency button to notify guards, who had him taken to a hospital.
The assault remains undetermined, but some of the men involved in the beating have been identified and charges are pending, jail director Steve Robertson said.
The inmate had been assigned to Pod 4G, which houses about 24 inmates from the general population, Robertson said. Despite hourly walkthroughs by guards, there was no mention of the assault until after the inmate collapsed, he said.
“It’s a completely sad situation,” Robertson said. “We’re asking ourselves what could we have done better?”
The man was the third to die in the county jail in three years. A 55-year-old inmate succumbed to a heart attack in July 2006 and a 25-year-old inmate hanged himself in 2005.