Border Patrol Prisoner Had Been Dead for Hours

A 26-year-old Mexican man who was found dead Sunday at the El Cajon Border Patrol station strangled himself and lay motionless for hours in a crowded holding cell before he was discovered by Border Patrol agents, authorities said.

Other undocumented immigrants who were in the cell with Bartolome Rojas believed him to be dead and stepped over him to use the toilet but “kept to themselves” and said nothing to agents, said El Cajon Police Detective Mike Howard, who investigated the death.

Agents also tried to rouse Rojas unsuccessfully, apparently without noticing that he was dead, with a shirt knotted tightly around his neck, Howard added.

Rojas was placed in an empty cell about 7:30 Sunday morning. Several hours later, 17 immigrants believed to be undocumented were placed in the cell with him, and agents passed in and out all morning before they noticed that Rojas was dead about 12:30 p.m., Howard said.

Rojas was picked up by San Diego police Sunday morning in the 9900 block of San Diego Mission Road, Border Patrol spokesman Steve Kean said. There were no grounds for arrest, but, when officers determined that Rojas was in the country illegally they called Border Patrol agents, who came and got him.

Rojas was seen lying on a bench in the holding cell shortly after Border Patrol agents put him there, Howard said. But agents who came in several hours later to put 17 people in the cell didn’t recall seeing Rojas.

“This is a small cell. The only place you can get lost is where (Rojas) was found--behind a masonry partition that separates the cell from the toilet area,” Howard said, adding that a bank of fluorescent lights in the back of the cell is broken and a flashlight is necessary to see clearly.

Howard said Rojas’ feet were visible, and several people stepped over him to use the toilet.

Agents took people out of the cell one and two at a time to process their deportations throughout the morning, and when the cell was nearly empty they discovered that Rojas was dead, Howard said.

Rojas’ death was first believed to be a homicide, but deputies at the county medical examiner’s office concluded Monday that the shirt around his neck was neatly folded, with the knot tied in the front. There were no signs of any physical struggle.

“There would definitely be a struggle in there if somebody had done that to him,” Howard said. “If you’re going to strangle someone, you’re certainly not going to fold the shirt and tie a knot in the front. You’re going to tie it in the back.”