Man found hanged in cell

Gretchen Hoffman

LOS ANGELES -- A man arrested last year after leading sheriff’s

officials on a short foot chase apparently hanged himself in his cell at

County Men’s Central Jail, officials said.

Lorenz Karlic, 45, was found hanged by a bedsheet in his single cell

by deputies on a routine security check at 7:02 a.m. Tuesday, said Scott

Carrier, spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

Deputies attempted CPR and called Los Angeles City Fire Department

paramedics, who pronounced him dead at 7:15 a.m., officials said.

The death was ruled a suicide by hanging, but no suicide note was

found, Carrier said. Karlic was segregated in a maximum security area of

the jail, he added.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau investigates all

deaths inside county jail facilities, Sgt. Don Bee said.

Last month, a Pasadena judge convicted Karlic of eight charges of

possessing weapons and resisting arrest in connection with his arrest in

La Crescenta last April.

On April 2, 2001, deputies were looking for Lorenz, who was considered

a prime suspect in a Riverside County murder, in the area around Briggs

Avenue and Foothill Boulevard, deputies said.

During a short foot chase, deputies fired a few shots at Karlic, who

was not injured and surrendered at the May-Lane Motel, said Sgt. James

Noennick of the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station.

Karlic escaped from state prison while serving time for murder and

robbery in 1978 and helped another inmate escape from Folsom Prison while

a free man in 1987.

He was set to return to court Feb. 25 for sentencing.