Crime & Safety

Ocampo Autopsy Monday Independent of OCSD

Accused serial killer is believed to have ingested Ajax cleanser.

By City News Service

The Orange County jail detainee who may have eaten household cleanser to kill himself rather than face trial for allegedly killing six people, will have an autopsy Monday by an independent contract medical examiner, a sheriff's spokesman said Sunday.

Itzcoatl Ocampo, 25, was found shaking and vomiting in his single-man cell at the Central Men's Jail on Wednesday evening. Jailers say he head eaten a horde of chlorine-based bleach cleaning powder.

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Orange County sheriff's Lt. Jeff Hallock said his office, which acts as the official coroner in Orange County, has hired an independent firm for the examination.

Ocampo had been suspected of killing four homeless men in Orange County in December 2011 as well as a mother and son in October 2011. The District Attorney had said he was going to ask for the death penalty.

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Ocampo was arrested on Jan. 13, 2012 shortly after the death of John Berry, who was allegedly killed in an attack about a quarter-mile behind a Carl's Jr. at 3110 E. La Palma Ave. in Anaheim.

Paramedics rushed the Iraq War veteran to Western Medical Center at 6:35 p.m. Wednesday. He was pronounced dead at 1:38 p.m. Thursday inside the hospital's Intensive Care Unit.

Orange County prosecutor Suzi Aramesh Price sent an email Thursday to victims' family members saying that Ocampo was on life support.

"It seems that Mr. Ocampo tried to kill himself by ingesting Ajax last night," she wrote.

Later in the day, she sent a second email saying that Ocampo had died.

Hallock said cleaning products are given to county jail inmates in small amounts upon request, but he stopped short of saying that Ocampo died from ingesting Ajax.

One of Ocampo's attorneys, Michael Molfetta, last week said that Ocampo's jailers had "failed miserably" in their duty to prevent a detainee from killing himself. The defense team also indicated they were planning an insanity defense for their client.  


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