Charged Mental Patient Found Dead

A man charged with killing a fellow patient at Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino committed suicide in his jail cell Tuesday, authorities said.

Samuel Gomez Galindo, 33, apparently either drowned himself in the cell toilet or asphyxiated himself by somehow using the toilet rim to put pressure on his neck.

A nurse at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga said she found Galindo, wet and with his head resting on the toilet of his one-man cell, about 5 p.m. He had been dead for less than an hour and did not leave a note, said San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Sgt. Frank Bell.

Galindo had been jailed at West Valley since Dec. 8, a day after he allegedly choked and slammed to the floor Patton patient Dwight Wenholz.

Wenholz, 43, was a long-term patient at Patton. He was found dead on a bathroom floor.

Galindo, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, had been charged with murder and was to have appeared Wednesday at a hearing in San Bernardino County Superior Court.

The killing was the second this year at Patton, and they were the first at the facility since 1994. Patton, with about 1,500 patients, mainly houses people with severe mental illnesses who were referred by criminal courts.

Galindo had convictions for arson, battery and brandishing a deadly weapon, said Cameron Page, the San Bernardino County deputy district attorney handling the case. The inmate’s most recent offense was possession of a weapon while in jail.

He was admitted to the mental hospital in September 2000, said hospital spokeswoman Cindy Barrett, who couldn’t recall any other time a Patton patient jailed at West Valley had harmed himself.

Hospital officials were notified of Galindo’s death Tuesday night. The Riverside County coroner’s office will perform an autopsy so there isn’t a conflict of interest within San Bernardino County.

Galindo’s family could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

His father, Raymond, and sister, Rachel, previously told The Times that Galindo had asked to be transferred from Patton for at least a year. Both said he worried about getting into fights with other patients.

Galindo had been moved to a different cell Tuesday. His original cell was close enough to a stairwell that, during his exercise time, he could have climbed to an upper walkway. Officials feared Galindo would jump, Bell said.

Galindo had tried suicide at least one other time while at West Valley, Page said.

The new cell had a mattress, a bunk and a stainless-steel toilet and sink. Officials had yet to deliver bedsheets or Galindo’s belongings, Bell said. The facility nurse was delivering medication to Galindo, in a unit checked hourly, when she found him.

The Sheriff’s Department and West Valley officials will investigate the incident separately, Bell said.