County Jail Inmate Uses Socks to Hang Himself

A 33-year-old El Cajon man used a noose fashioned from his tube socks to hang himself Tuesday in his cell at the County Jail, sheriff’s deputies reported.

Paul William Ballard, a maintenance electrician, was discovered hanging in his cell early Tuesday morning, just a few hours after his arrest late Monday night for bothering his estranged wife outside her El Cajon apartment, authorities said.

Michelle Ballard told sheriff’s deputies that her husband was drunk and that he talked of committing suicide, Lt. John Tenwolde said. She said she refused to let him enter her apartment because of past spousal abuse.

Ballard was arrested on charges of public drunkenness, Tenwolde said. He was questioned at the jail about his physical and emotional state.

At that point, Ballard apparently told sheriff’s deputies that he was not suicidal, Tenwolde said. But authorities determined that Ballard was too drunk to book, and they placed him in a detoxification cell.

Nearly half an hour later, about 12:40 a.m., a sheriff’s deputy discovered Ballard hanging inside his cell, Tenwolde said. To take his life, Ballard had apparently tied a pair of tube socks together and run them through a support bar for the handicapped, positioned 33 inches off the ground.

After he placed the noose around his neck, Ballard lowered his body and hanged himself, Tenwolde said. A jail employee gave Ballard, who was not breathing, cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Ballard was taken to UC San Diego Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 1:20 a.m., Tenwolde said.

The medical examiner’s office determined Tuesday that the cause of death was asphyxiation by hanging, investigator Stan Berdan said.