Rozanna M. Martinez
Albuquerque Journal
SANDOVAL COUNTY, N.M. — The Sandoval County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a suicide at the county’s jail, the third at the Sandoval County Detention Center since December.
Dario Panteh, 19, of Zuni Pueblo, was found hanging in his cell about 12:44 a.m. Sunday. He was found by a guard, according to Sandoval County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Sgt. Jessica Mascarenas.
Medics responded and performed CPR on Panteh, then transported him to Rust Medical Center, where he later died from his injuries, Mascarenas said in an email.
It was not immediately known what Panteh used to hang himself. Panteh was being held on federal aggravated battery charges.
On Dec. 6, Kenneth Traiger, 22, hanged himself from a torn sheet in the shower area of the jail. Detention center staff unsuccessfully tried to revive him.
He was taken to a hospital and put on a ventilator, but he never regained consciousness. He was taken off life support on Dec. 11, according to the Sandoval County Sheriff’s Office. Traiger had been booked in the jail on a bank robbery charge.
On Dec. 8, Stephen Vincent, 52, was booked into the jail about 7 p.m. and was found hanging in his jail cell about 8½ hours later. He used his shoelaces to hang himself from a vent, the Sheriff’s
Office said. Vincent was booked on a warrant charging him with criminal sexual penetration of a minor.
The jail made changes to its intake policies and procedures as a result of an internal investigation into those two suicides.
Before the two suicides in December, the last suicide at SCDC was in May 2010 and before that, in the early 1990s, SCDC director Al Casamento has said. The detention center location on Montoya Road in Bernalillo has been in operation since 1988.
Copyright 2012 Albuquerque Journal