Inmate Dies at Jail After Being Given Medication

An Orange County Jail inmate who was given medication by the jail’s medical staff Sunday night died a short while later after suffering convulsions, authorities said.

The inmate was identified Monday as Michael C. Whitt, 24, of Dana Point, who had been serving a 135-day sentence for petty theft and probation violation.

Authorities said Monday that they did not know the cause of Whitt’s death. An autopsy may be performed today, and the district attorney’s office is investigating the matter, as it does all jail deaths.

County officials declined to specify what type of medication Whitt was receiving or the nature of his medical condition.

Whitt, who had been under treatment since his incarceration on April 8, was given medication at 6:25 p.m. Sunday. Less than half an hour later, he began having convulsions, officials said.

The jail staff performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation at the jail, and paramedics then took Whitt to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, officials said. He was pronounced dead at the hospital at 7:40 p.m.

“That’s really all we know at this time,” said Ron Johnson, a district attorney’s investigator who is working on the case.

David Riley, division manager of medical services for the County Health Care Agency, which administers medical services at the county jail facilities, estimated that about one in four inmates receives some type of medication, ranging from aspirin to prescription drugs.

Riley declined further comment on the Whitt case, however.

Deputy Public Defender Danni Murphy said Whitt pleaded guilty in Municipal Court in Laguna Niguel in April to a misdemeanor charge of petty theft, admitting that he had taken several hundred dollars from his employer through fraudulent business checks. Murphy said she was unaware of any medical problems Whitt may have been suffering.

Whitt’s former employer, Parvin Kazemi, said Whitt did not appear to have health problems. She said Whitt worked for several months as a waiter at Cafe Italia in Laguna Hills, which she owns, and that he was fired in April, 1991, after he cashed a check through an account at another business she owns, Mirage Cleaners in Laguna Hills.

Whitt’s family could not be reached for comment.

Whitt’s death is the fourth of an Orange County Jail inmate in three years. In 1990, Sheriff’s Department Lt. Richard J. Olson said, jail guards discovered the body of Pamela Ayers hanging from a bedsheet in her jail cell in the Central Women’s Jail in Santa Ana. In 1989, Anniele Gillium and Jimmy Martinez died in separate incidents, both apparently of natural causes, Olson said.