Newly released videos and reports provide further evidence that sheriff’s deputies in Riverside County missed signs that a murder suspect awaiting trial at a Southern California jail was planning on taking his life, the New York Times reports. The new evidence follows an investigation by The New York Times and The Desert Sun revealing that possibly suicidal detainees were not properly monitored and that coroner’s reports of jail deaths were frequently inaccurate in the sprawling jail system east of Los Angeles. The death was among five suicides in Riverside County jails in recent years, several of which occurred after the department failed to intervene when detainees covered their cell cameras in mental health housing units or made suicidal statements, the news organizations found.
The department’s report, which was released this month in response to a public records request, says that Aaron Aubrey began to cover his cell door window with newspaper about an hour before he was found unresponsive, apparently to keep anyone from looking inside. A deputy delivered lunch to his cell after he had begun covering his window, according to a report by the department’s lead investigator. He was taken to a hospital and put on life support but later died. Aubrey, 28, had an extensive history of mental illness and violence. He was being housed in a mental health unit while awaiting trial on two murder charges. About 20 written reports from deputies about the suicide show that Aubrey was able to conceal his actions with no intervention by deputies or staff. Aubrey had requested a meeting with a behavioral health clinician the day he hanged himself, but was never seen. Footage of Aubrey's cell shows him with a white sheet draped around his neck, pacing slowly around the cell. He takes pieces of paper to the sink and wets them. He climbs to the camera and covers it with paper. What happened next is not visible; at that point there is only muffled audio. A camera inside Aubrey’s cell captured chaotic audio in which deputies can be heard calling to him through the door. He was given emergency medical treatment, according to written reports from deputies and a coroner’s report.