Autopsy: Jail Inmate Died Of Natural Causes

SAN DIEGO, CA — Postmortem tests have determined that a 53-year-old inmate who died six months ago while in custody at Las Colinas women's jail in Santee succumbed to natural causes, authorities reported Tuesday.

Deputies serving dinner to inmates at the Riverview Parkway detention center found Linda Bagby of El Cajon unconscious and unresponsive in her cell shortly before 4:30 p.m. on June 13, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Office.

Jail medical personnel performed CPR on Bagby prior to the arrival of paramedics, who took over the lifesaving attempts before pronouncing her dead at the scene, sheriff's Lt. Juan Marquez said.

The county Medical Examiner's Office has ruled that Bagby died from complications of chronic heart disease, with liver and spleen ailments, a history of alcoholism, and morbid obesity acting as contributing factors.

At the time of her death, Bagby had been in custody for about five months, facing charges of assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment and felony vandalism, officials said.

"The San Diego Sheriff's Office extends our sympathies to the Bagby family and all those affected by Ms. Bagby's passing," Marquez said. "A sheriff's family-liaison officer will continue to support the family as they navigate through this difficult time."

The Sheriff's Office, which runs the county's jails, has been under scrutiny for years due its unusually high number of in-custody deaths. In 2022, the California State Auditor's Office found "deficiencies with how the (county agency) provides care for and protects incarcerated individuals (that) likely contributed to in-custody deaths."

That audit examined 185 deaths within the San Diego-area jail system from 2006 through 2020, a rate that exceeded all of California's other large counties during the same period. Nineteen in-custody deaths occurred in the county in 2022 alone, and another six took place in 2023.

The Sheriff's Office has committed to a $500 million effort to modernize and upgrade its jails, but critics have questioned whether those efforts have been sufficient to address the problem of custody deaths.

— City News Service