Family of dead Santa Rosa jail inmate wants answers

The family of a Santa Rosa man found dead in the Sonoma County Jail said this week they believe he may have gone into shock when he didn’t receive prescribed medications for several health conditions, including diabetes.

Diego Armando De Paz, 31, was serving a 15-day sentence related to a drunken-driving conviction when he was found unresponsive in his North County Detention Center bed last Wednesday.

He died despite efforts to revive him.

Jail officials were awaiting the results of an autopsy to determine the cause of his death. An investigation is ongoing, Sonoma County Sheriff’s Sgt. Cecile Focha said Monday.

But Diana De Paz said she thinks jail officials are somehow to blame for her brother’s death. She said he took injections three times a day for diabetes and was on pain medication for injuries from a car crash eight years ago. He also was prescribed pills for depression, she said.

She said it’s possible he wasn’t given the correct medicine or the right amount and died because of it.

“We’re going to do our best to find out what happened and find who’s responsible,” Diana De Paz said.

She said the family has hired a lawyer and is considering a wrongful death lawsuit.

Meanwhile, funeral services for Diego De Paz are planned for Friday.

The 2000 Elsie Allen High School graduate leaves behind four sons and was pursuing a lifelong dream of opening an auto body shop, his sister said.

He was enrolled in a Sacramento vocational school and was a full-time caretaker for his mother, she said.

Two years ago he was recognized by Sheriff Steve Freitas for catching a man who had just sexually assaulted a pregnant woman along a Santa Rosa street, his sister said.

De Paz was driving near the scene of the 2011 attack when he saw the man later identified as Jack Caratachea on top of the woman, who was eight months’ pregnant, his sister said.

He jumped out of the car and ran after the man, holding him down until police arrived. He testified at the trial, and Caratachea later was sentenced to a life prison term.

De Paz helped out despite the fact that he still was recovering from two broken legs he suffered in a 2006 head-on collision with a drunken driver, his sister said.

The crash happened as he and his wife and their baby were traveling along Guerneville Road. His sister said he steered his car away from the other car at the last minute so he would take the brunt of the impact, saving his wife and son. The driver of the other car was killed.

He underwent six surgeries, had steel rods inserted in his legs and was on pain medication until his death, she said.

“He was an overall awesome guy,” his sister said. “He was very caring and he used his power to help whenever needed.”

But he had problems, too. He was cited last year for drunken driving and sentenced to jail time. He violated probation by driving and was ordered to serve another 15 days, his sister said.

He was two days into the sentence when he was discovered unresponsive in his bed. Deputies tried to revive him, but they couldn’t get him to start breathing again.

His sister said it was strange because he had called his mother the night before and seemed fine.

She said the family desperately wants to know how he died. “We want to know because when the kids are older they are going to want to know what happened,” she said. “And we don’t want anyone else to go through this.”