For more than an hour, he asked for help, because he was tortured to death in a California prison. "No one came," says his family. - East Bay Times

At the beginning of last year, Brandon Yates He was arrested under the suspicion of burglary and reserved in the central prison in San Diego. He had been found asleep in the shed in someone’s yard.

Yates, who was 24 years old with a long history of mental illness, died in 24 hours.

He was beaten and tortured by his cell colleague – even though Yates repeatedly pressed the panic button inside his cell and, even though other men in prison have shouted to have problems, supports a new trial against San Diego and County of the sheriff Kelly Martinez.

“The deputies of the control tower either ignored desperate calls, or put the intercom on” bypass “, which means they stopped the sound in Brandon’s cell,” says the costume. “No one came while Brandon was tortured, stripped, tied, sexually assaulted and killed.”

Yates should have never been placed in the cell on the fourth floor with Alvin Ruis, which is now accused of murder, says the trial.

Ruis, who was arrested by Chula Vista police in December 2023, after being accused of assaulting his wife and children, also had a history of mental illness and repeatedly threatened other people in prison, including deputies, add the process.

Due to the violent behavior, Ruis was classified as “holds separately” – which means that it should not be placed in a cell with another person, adds the complaint.

The statements in the process of Yates’s parents, Dan Yates and Andrea Carrier, are the latest in a series of wrong death, incorrect conduct and negligence that are facing San Diego and his sheriff.

The county has paid more than $ 75 million in recent years to people who have died or were injured in county prisons, the records show.

The Yates family complaint cites the high mortality rate in prisons in San Diego county and says that the county has failed to properly train deputies. He also accuses deliberate indifference officials and refers to almost a dozen of other cases where people have not been properly housed or treated in prison.

“All the defendants had a legal debt to protect Brandon Yates from the foreseeable damages,” says the statement. “They had an affirmative debt to protect Brandon from the behavior of third -party attackers, including Ruis.”

A spokesman for the San Diego sheriff’s office refused to comment, citing the litigation.

The 24 -year -old Brandon Yates was tortured and killed by his cell colleague in the central men’s prison earlier this year. Yates repeatedly pressed the panic button inside the cell, but no one replied. (Yates family)

In an interview for San Diego Union-Tribune, Yates’s parents described their son as someone who has always been concerned about the well-being of others.

“He would literally take the shirt from the back and would give it to someone else,” his mother said.

Yates fought with drug addiction, but he worked hard to become sober, his parents said. He was an apprentice to be a commercial fisherman.

“He was motivated to try to climb a good way,” said Dan Yates.

Yates’s parents met Martinez two weeks after their son’s death, but were dissatisfied with her answers to their questions.

“Each question led to several questions,” said Dan Yates. “Nothing made sense to me. I would never have put the two in the same cell. “

“I heard and thought that if you are mentally ill, going to prison could be a blessing, because you hope that a judge will order the mental health treatment,” Yates’s mother said. “I felt a short moment from” Maybe he will finally receive the help he needs. ” It never seemed to me that his life was in danger. “

Andrea Carrier in Del Mar Sunday, February 23, 2025.

Sheriff’s office announced Yates’s death January 17, 2024. The press release expanded sympathies and offered a connection officer to support the family. But officials have detained most of the details in the public announcement.

“On January 16, 2024, around 1:36 pm, the deputies performed a safety check and found Mr. Yates without response and displaying signs of suffering,” the statement said.

It has been almost two weeks before the sheriff’s office announced Ruis’s arrest for an accusation of murder.

Since his initial arrest at the end of December, Ruis has been declared a danger to him and others several times, he claims the process. He was repeatedly sent to the mental health wing of the prison, known as improved observation housing, then returned to the general population without treatment.

“Each time Ruis was placed in EOH, the defendants will release him instead of treating or monitoring him for his serious mental health problems,” the complaint shows.

“Over the time at the central prison in San Diego, it was clear that Ruis was suffering from a significant mental illness that manifested itself in violent outbursts to prisoners and deputies,” he says. “Ruis has engaged in non-stop, compulsive talking about God and spoke in indescribable fools.”

Initially, Yates was placed in a cell along with two other people on the fourth floor of the prison. But his mental health problems caused the cell colleagues to ask to be moved or “there would be problems”, the complaint shows.

A deputy placed on Yates in Ruis’s cell. Later, Ruis told investigators that he thought Yates was owned by the devil and told Yates that he would be killing him, he shows in the complaint.

“Other prisoners have heard Ruis who threatens Brandon and Brandon screaming for help,” the complaint shows. “The deputies who entered the way ignored those screams.”

Ruis suffocated Yates until he was unconscious. When he saw that Yates was still alive, Ruis poured liquid soap into his nose and mouth and snatched it with a blanket.

Once Yates died, Ruis removed his clothes and put a soap bar in Yates’s anus. He assured Yates’s hands with a strip of clothing and was in the process of ensuring a band around Yates’s neck on the cell metal chair when deputies arrived to carry out an hour check.

“Ruis had timed torture because he knew that the deputies made rounds only once every hour at intervals of 60 minutes,” the complaint shows.

Dan Yates stands in Del Mar Sunday, Feb 23, 2025.

For years, the deputies of the county of San Diego have been accused of placed arrests in homes that are not suitable for their condition or of not properly monitored the people under arrest.

In 2010 a 70 -year -old man named Russell Hartsaw was beaten to death by a group of men in the George Bailey detention unit, even though it was classified as “keep everyone separately” due to age, small statues and early signs of dementia.

Six years later, a black man named Lyle Woodward was suffocated by death In his central closing cell by Clinton Thinn, a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, a supremacistic white band.

Woodward had a history of mental illness, and a deputy tried to place him on the psychiatric floor of the prison. But obtaining anyone who is distributed, was “a force of strength,” said Deputy Curtis Stratton to a homicide investigator in an interview that was part of the Woodward family process.

Woodward and Thinn ended up in the same cell, Stratton said: “Because everyone else had Corlat, the two crazy people together.”

In 2021, even on the day a court ordered his release from arrest, Dominique McCoy was killed by a man who is known to be violent and a threat to others, according to an investigation of the Council for the application of the law of independent citizens.

Earlier this year, John Medina pleaded guilty for the second degree for McCoy’s December 29, 2021, death. Medina was in prison under the suspicion of attack with a deadly weapon and abuse of criminal animals.

He told the homicide investigators that he heard voices who told him to kill McCoy. The deputies put men in a cell with a single mattress, stirring a fight.

On December 2, 2023, Walt Mehran attacked Eric Van in a central prison cell, leaving him with permanent brain injury. Still hospitalized in October, Van has developed a severe lung infection and has reached the support of life. His family chose to withdraw care on November 6.

Eric van you, right, is seen with his mother Carole, older brother Brian and Brian’s husband, Josh. (Matthew van you)

Mehran and Van, who both fought with serious mental illnesses, were placed with another man in a 75-square-meter, which was designed to host no more than two persons a practice of sheriff was the sheriff’s office said several times to stop.

Two years ago, San Diego County agreed to pay almost $ 8 million to Frankie Greer, who was assigned to a top of the county prison, even though the deputies knew that he suffered from seizures. Greer threw from the top bunker and suffered brain trauma that changes life.

Last summer, The The county agreed with a settlement of $ 15 million with the family Elisa Serna, A 24 -year -old woman who died due to drug withdrawal and alcohol after prison staff has not provided adequate medical care.

And in November, the county paid nearly $ 5 million Michael Wilson’s mother, who went for nine days of prison, without being given a prescription heart -based drugs that she relied on.

No trial date was scheduled in the case of civil Yates. A hearing is set for April 8 in the criminal case against Ruis.

Originally published: February 25, 2025 at 6:01 AM PST