Witness Found Dead in Jail Cell

A Wilmington man on trial for murder is suspected of slipping into the holding cell of a key witness in the Los Angeles Men’s Central Jail and strangling the inmate, Sheriff’s Department officials said Thursday.

Raul Tinajero, 20, a convicted car thief, was found dead on his cot in the downtown Los Angeles jail April 20, five weeks after a judge ordered authorities to isolate Tinajero from other inmates in a specially protected cell.

Tinajero testified in court earlier this month that he saw a neighbor, Santiago Pineda, 23, kill a man by running over him with his car.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said he believed that Pineda, who is being held without bail, managed to find his way to Tinajero’s six-man cell and kill him. Baca, who runs the 7,000-inmate County Jail system, apologized Thursday and promised a complete investigation.

“Hits do occur,” Baca said. “What makes it so concerning in this case is the person being testified against was able to commit the murder.... How does anyone get from one part of the jail to another undetected? How does the suspect know where this individual is located? How does he pass through locked doors?”

The county coroner said it appeared that Tinajero was strangled with a cord or other ligature. Sheriff’s homicide investigators said they were gathering evidence against Pineda and expected to present a case to prosecutors.

Prosecutors had worried for weeks that Tinajero might be attacked by Pineda or other jail inmates for cooperating with authorities.

A judge granted a court order March 10 asking the Sheriff’s Department to keep Tinajero in protective custody, according to court documents.

“We expected the authorities to protect him,” said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

On April 1, Long Beach police transferred Tinajero to the Men’s Central Jail from North Kern State Prison, where he was serving a sentence for auto theft. Tinajero had agreed to testify in Pineda’s trial.

Tinajero testified for two days starting April 6 that he saw Pineda kill Rafael Sanchez in 2002. Tinajero said in court that Pineda choked Sanchez while the three men were in a car, and then threw the victim out the door “and ran him over with the car a couple of times,” according to sheriff’s homicide investigators and court documents.

The Long Beach Police Department and the Sheriff’s Department gave different explanations for the failure to give Tinajero special protection.

Sheriff’s Capt. Ray Leyva, the administrator in charge of Men’s Central, said his department never received the court order.

“We don’t have a protective order on file or any indication he was in danger,” Leyva said. “If one had been sought by the Long Beach Police Department, we never received it.”

With the protective order, Tinajero would have been placed in a one-man cell. Instead, he was among the general population -- housing that includes four- and six-man cells, as well as dormitories that hold as many as 20 prisoners.

Long Beach police blamed a sheriff’s court bailiff for the mix-up.

“The bailiff in the court is responsible for carrying the protective order to his department,” said Police Sgt. Paul LeBaron. “The detective in this case was aware of the need for protection and went to the holding area of the court jail to personally talk to the deputies about the order.”

LeBaron said his department helped seek the protective order. “We were well aware of the danger in this case,” he said. “Our detective was in court and made sure there was a protective order in place.”

The sergeant said the original case against Pineda would continue. A judge ordered a mistrial April 12, and a new trial has been set for May 3. Prosecutors said they planned to use Tinajero’s prior testimony.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Bradford Andrews, a supervising judge for the South District, which includes Long Beach, said he believed the Sheriff’s Department got the order to keep the witness in protective custody.

“Both persons, as I understand it, were in the sheriff’s custody,” Andrews said. “It would have been the sheriff’s responsibility to provide the separation of those persons.

“It seemed to me that there may have been a breakdown in communication,” the judge added. “Normally the sheriffs are very good about protecting the people and keeping them away.”

Baca said that homicides sometimes occur in the violent world of jails but that this killing was particularly disturbing.

“The reality here is a man is dead, and however much investigation we do, that won’t change,” the sheriff said.

“This guy was doing the right thing, and now he’s lost his life. That is my greatest regret. We must do better than this.”

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Times staff writer Monte Morin contributed to this report.