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Authorities Investigate Death At Santa Barbara County Jail

Authorities are investigating the death of a Santa Barbara County jail inmate. Sheriff’s Office officials say at around 4:30 Sunday afternoon, custody deputies found Hector Higareda unresponsive in his cell at the main county jail complex. Efforts by jail personnel and paramedics to resuscitate Higareda were unsuccessful. The 38 year old Santa Maria man had been housed in a jail cell by himself. An autopsy is pending, but officials say it was a suicide. He was serving a year sentence related to a domestic dispute incident, and was scheduled to be released in December.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral.