VENTURA : Man Hangs Himself in Jail, Officials Say

A 38-year-old Ojai man committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell at the Ventura County Jail, sheriff’s investigators said Sunday.

Larry Fuller, a woodworker who was arrested late Friday near Ojai on suspicion of being under the influence of a controlled substance, was found hanging from a ceiling fixture by a bedsheet at about 5 p.m. Saturday, said Cmdr. Kenneth Kipp.

Kipp said Fuller had been arrested in Meiners Oaks about 8 p.m. Friday after an off-duty Port Hueneme police officer spotted him acting strangely. Fuller was booked into the jail shortly before 9 p.m. but gave no indication of being despondent, Kipp said.

“All of the communications equipment in his cell was working and functioning,” the jail commander said. “If he wanted anything, we would have responded.” Fuller, who was in an individual cell because of past confrontations with inmates and staff, was last seen alive by a jailer about 1:45 p.m. Saturday, Kipp said.

Investigators said Fuller had been arrested Jan. 24 on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance, possession of narcotics paraphernalia and being under the influence. But Fuller was released from Ventura County Jail on Jan. 27, when the district attorney’s office did not file charges against him within the three-day statutory limit, Kipp said. The next evening, Officer Dennis Fitzgerald told sheriff’s deputies that Fuller was acting strangely outside a restaurant in Meiners Oaks, Kipp said.

An autopsy performed Sunday confirmed the cause of death as asphyxiation, Deputy Coroner Craig Stevens said.