D.A. Investigating Jail Inmate’s Death : Possibility of Homicide by Fellow Prisoner Under Consideration

The district attorney’s office is investigating the possibility that a fellow Orange County Jail inmate might have killed Robin Ross Latham Tuesday, and homicide investigators are trying to determine whether Latham should have been in protective custody.

Latham, 43, was found unconscious on his bunk about 5:15 p.m. Tuesday. He was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where he died about 6:30 p.m.

Question of Placement

Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas Goethals, who is handling the investigation, said Friday he had not been able to confirm reports--attributed to Latham’s wife, Ruth--that Latham had been under pressure from the Department of Corrections to act as an informant on members of the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist prison gang.

“We are looking into whether or not there would have been a motive for another inmate to kill him,” Goethals said. “You can speculate that inmates might kill another inmate because someone is, or might become an informant. That’s something we’re certainly investigating.”

Goethals said that investigators were trying to determine whether Latham should have been placed with several other inmates in an eight-man cell, a situation that could have been dangerous if other inmates believed Latham was an informant. Although the cell was not full at the time Latham died, several of his cellmates were present when he lost consciousness, he said.

“There’s no indication he had ever been in protective custody,” Goethals said. “The jail has an admitting staff that classifies where a prisoner can safely live, and, as far as we know, they had no reason to believe he should be living anywhere other than where he was living. But that’s something we’re going to be very curious to find out.”

Although the official cause of Latham’s death remains undetermined pending toxicological tests, a sheriff’s source said there was evidence of morphine in Latham’s system, which indicated he may have ingested heroin shortly before his death.

Latham had been in custody since April for possession of a gun in violation of his parole. He had served a 7-year prison term for the 1977 murder of Westminster resident Tom Hoffman, 25, and had also been convicted of robbery and auto theft.