Santa Ana : Jail Inmate Strangled, D.A.’s Office Reports

A 25-year-old County Jail inmate who was found dead two weeks ago in a medical ward died from strangulation, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office said Tuesday.

Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. James Enright said inmate Arthur Oviedo of Santa Fe Springs, who was serving a sentence for misdemeanor battery on a police officer, was in the medical ward with another inmate, but he would not identify the second inmate.

The district attorney’s office began an investigation after the body was found in the ward Jan. 31 with bruises on the neck and a towel covering the face.

Oviedo’s sister, Susana Oviedo, said the family had expected to learn that her brother was strangled.

“We expected authorities to find it was strangulation because of the bruises,” she said. “But we’re getting angry trying to find out why he was in a medical ward and how he had been killed.”

She said that, despite repeated telephone calls to the sheriff-coroner’s office, “we still don’t have the answers to a lot of questions.”

“We’ve been calling the coroner’s office, but they don’t want to say anything to us,” she said.

Oviedo was arrested Jan. 8 for felony battery on a Fullerton police officer. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to five months in County Jail.