RSSAnother Yakima jail inmate commits suicide
Yakima Herald-Republic
E-mail
Print
More 'Local'
- Battling Wapato blaze
- Motor home fire threatening homes in Outlook
- Autopsy confirms woman's death caused by gunshot
- 07/03/09 Photo Journal
- Teacher involved in feces fiasco reprimanded
- Autopsy today for I-82 shooting victim
- Is Puyallup’s Nearly Naked Fireworks stand too hot?
A 19-year-old prisoner who was scheduled to plead to an arson charge Friday hanged himself in his cell Thursday night, Yakima County jail officials said.
A corrections officer found William Murray’s body in his cell at 9:56 p.m. Corrections Director Steve Robertson said Murray used a bed sheet and tied it to a vent.
It was the third suicide in the jail in less than a year and the second major incident this week. On Tuesday a 30-year-old inmate was stabbed several times in the upper body. He’s expected to survive.
In April, a 28-year-old inmate died from massive head injuries when he jumped from a cell block railing. In November, a 43-year-old Yakima woman hanged herself in her cell.
It was not the first time that Murray had tried to kill himself. In fact, that’s why he was in jail in the first place.
In March, the teenager was arrested after a bizarre suicide attempt in Toppenish where he nearly set fire to the building he was living in. Firefighters found Murray tied up in a chair in a burning apartment on West First Avenue. He said gang members set the room on fire and left him to die.
But police said the teenager’s story didn’t match the evidence, and he later admitted he tried to commit suicide. At the time of the fire, a business was open downstairs and residents were home next door.
Prosecutor Ken Ramm said Murray was scheduled to plead Friday to a reduced charge of second-degree arson and was looking at a prison sentence of 21 months.
According to Robertson, Murray was found alone in his locked cell. Robertson said that despite the circumstances of Murray’s arrest, his behavior had not been self-destructive and he had not been, at least recently, on a suicide watch.
“He had been here for months, and there was absolutely nothing to indicate he was contemplating this act,” Robertson said.
In addition to this week’s stabbing and suicide, the county jail also has been in the news recently with the death of Gail Kindness, 41, who died in custody the night of Aug. 16, two days after being brought to the jail.
Yakima County Coroner Maury Rice said there appeared to be no foul play in Kindness' death, which he said was caused by a heart attack. Toxicology reports showed that Kindness had no illicit drugs in her system at the time of her death.
