LOS ANGELES COUNTY : Suicide Ruled Out in Death of Man in Mexican Custody

The death of 29-year-old Mario Amado of North Hollywood last June while he was being held by police in the Mexican town of Rosarito Beach was not suicide but evidently occurred “at the hands of another,” the Los Angeles County chief medical examiner-coroner ruled.

“I would not certify this case as a suicidal hanging,” Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran concluded in a report to Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), who represents the district where Amado’s family lives and has monitored an investigation by Mexican authorities.

In July, a Los Angeles pathologist hired by Amado’s family concluded that the presence of three cups of blood in the liver capsule was “strong evidence for a blow to the upper abdomen.”