Inmate From Cupertino Dies After Fall At Elmwood Correctional Facility: Sheriff's Office

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA -- A Cupertino man jailed since late last month at a the Elmwood Correctional Facility died Thursday, two days after he was found unconscious at the bottom of a stairwell, according to the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office.

Shane Varaiya, 35, died at 12:58 p.m. Thursday, sheriff's Sgt. Richard Glennon said.

"While a thorough investigation is under way, the preliminary indicators of the investigation are the individual jumped from the second-story stairwell for the purpose of taking his own life or accidentally fell from the stairwell," Glennon said. "The incident was not captured on video surveillance."

Varaiya, who lived in Cupertino, was a low-security inmate who was originally booked into custody on May 28.

According to Glennon, Varaiya was discovered unresponsive by fellow inmates at 5:40 p.m. Tuesday at the base of a stairway outside a minimum-security barrack at the jail in Milpitas.

"(He was) unconscious, and not breathing, " Glennon said.

Deputies were alerted to the scene and performed CPR and used an AED in an effort to revive him, the sergeant said. Jail medical staff also "immediately administered emergency First Aid," before Varaiya was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, Glennon said.

Standard protocols are being followed in the investigation of Varaiya's in-custody death, with sheriff’s detectives, crime scene investigators and the District Attorney’s Office assigned to the case, Glennon said.

According to the sergeant, Varaiya was being housed with the lowest security level offenders within Santa Clara County.

"Minimum Camp is the least restrictive housing area which allows for greater access to structured and unstructured programming in a dorm setting," Glennon said. "The barrack staircases are used by inmates as part of their regular movement throughout the camp."

In April, a 48-year-old inmate identified as Patrick Missud died at a hospital after he was found unresponsive on the floor of the common area in the M-8 housing unit at Elmwood.

Missud, a disbarred lawyer who had been charged with attempting to threaten a public official, also died at a hospital and had visible injuries consistent with falling or jumping from the second level.

Sheriff's investigators said they believed Missud's death was a suicide.

A $1.6 million project to construct floor-to-ceiling suicide prevention barriers that would prevent climbing along the second-floor walkway at both Elmwood and the Main Jail in San Jose was passed unanimously by the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors last month.

The initiative is part of a larger movement to reform the county jail after 33-year-old mentally ill inmate Michael Tyree was found dead in his cell in 2015.

Three correctional deputies were found guilty earlier this month of beating Tyree to death.

Bay City News Service contributed to this report.

Image via Shutterstock

Editor's note: Elmwood Correctional Facility was misspelled in an earlier version of this story.