Deputies ID Cellmates Of Watsonville Man Strangled Inside Jail

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, CA — Deputies have identified the inmates who were sharing a cell with 24-year-old inmate German Carrillo when he was found dead Monday morning in a probable homicide at the Santa Cruz County Main Jail.

Carrillo of Watsonville was found dead at around 11 a.m. A forensic pathologist has determined the cause of death to be strangulation.

Deputies say Carrillo shared a cell with 33-year-old Mario Lozano of Santa Cruz and 25-year-old Jason Cortez of Watsonville. The inmates were housed in a designated unit for active gang members.

According to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office, Carrillo had been held in the county's jail since April 2013 on murder and other charges. He was initially charged as a 17-year-old as one of multiple defendants in the beating and stabbing death of Felipe Reyes in Watsonville, county prosecutors said.

Carrillo's death marks the second at the San Cruz facility in just two days. James Kohut, 59, who had been jail since May 2017 on felony sex-related charges, was found dead at the same jail on Sunday. Kohut did not share a cell with other inmates and was in a protective housing unit, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff-Coroner said in a news release.

Correctional Officers found him alone in his cell when breakfast service began at 5:45 a.m.

Kohut was a neurosurgeon whose official address when he was arrested was Arkansas but he was also associated with addresses in Santa Cruz, Merced County and Tucson, Arizona. He was arrested in May 2017 and was facing dozens of offenses related to sex with children, sheriff's spokeswoman Ashley Keehn said.

Kohut left a note inside his cell before he took his life indicating his determination to kill himself. Sheriff's officials said he partially cut his femoral artery, a large artery in his thigh.

—Bay City News contributed to this report.