Santa Paula Police Cleared in Death at Jail

The Ventura County district attorney’s office on Friday cleared the Santa Paula Police Department of any wrongdoing in the case of a man who died last month in the Santa Paula jail.

District attorney’s investigators concluded that Daniel Guajardo, 23, who was found dead about 10 hours after his arrest Sept. 3, died from ingesting lethal doses of cocaine and lidocaine, Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter D. Kossoris said.

Santa Paula police arrested Guajardo about 5 p.m. that day, after he had a heated argument with his wife. He was charged with possession of cocaine, being under the influence of cocaine and obstructing a police officer.

Guajardo’s body was found between 3 and 3:15 a.m. the next morning.

Dr. Ron O’Halloran, assistant Ventura County coroner, ruled that superficial cuts and scrapes found on Guajardo’s body could have been caused by Guajardo resisting arrest, but none was life-threatening, according to the district attorney’s report.

High concentrations of pure cocaine that had been only slightly metabolized were found in Guajardo’s blood, indicating that he ingested the drug shortly before he died, O’Halloran ruled.

“Ingestion occurred after his arrest,” the district attorney’s report concluded. “Death could have occurred in one to two hours or sooner after assimilation. It is common knowledge and common experience among drug enforcement officers that a person possessing illegal drugs will often swallow them if faced with arrest. This is to either destroy evidence or recover and use the drugs while incarcerated.”

The report said police recovered small packets of cocaine and lidocaine from the police car used to take Guajardo to the police station.

Guajardo’s widow, Frances Marie, reacted bitterly to the district attorney’s announcement.

“I’m mad,” she said. “I’m really furious. How can they say there was nothing wrong?”

Guajardo said her attorney, Douglas Stenzel, would continue his investigation of the case. “We’ve found a bunch of things that were wrong,” she said.

Guajardo’s grandmother, Juanita Gaona, was also disappointed. “I’m not happy because I know the police beat him,” she said in Spanish. “There was no reason for that. He wasn’t fighting and he wasn’t running away. Just because police have pistols, it doesn’t mean they can do whatever they want.”

But Kossoris said Guajardo’s family has not been willing to share another autopsy report prepared by Dr. Irving Root, who was hired to conduct a second autopsy Sept. 8 on Guajardo.