SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) - Authorities in Northern California were investigating the deaths of two inmates at Santa Cruz County’s main jail, where one was found strangled in his cell a day after another cut his artery, officials said Thursday.
German Carrillo, of Watsonville, shared a cell with two other inmates and was found dead Monday, said Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Ashley Keehn.
An autopsy showed the 24-year-old was strangled and an investigation is ongoing. No suspects have been named, Keehn said.
Carrillo was found dead his cell in a housing unit for active gang members. He had been in jail since April 2013 on murder charges, she said.
James Kohut, a former neurosurgeon facing child sex abuse charges, was found dead in his cell Sunday. An autopsy determined the death to be suicide and found he partially severed his femoral artery, at his left groin.
Kohut had been held since May 2017 when he and two women were arrested on suspicion of running a child-sex ring. Watsonville police said they received video images implicating all three. A month later, the state medical board revoked Kohut’s medical license.
Keehn said the two deaths are not related.
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