Petaluma murder suspect found dead in jail cell

A man accused of killing an acquaintance was found dead after apparently hanging himself in a cell at the Sonoma County Jail, sheriff’s officials said.

Mikol Wayne Stewart, 37, of Santa Rosa was found by another inmate at about 10:20 a.m. Sunday in a cell at the main detention center in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County sheriff’s officials said. He was pronounced dead at 10:35 a.m. after he could not be revived.

An autopsy confirmed Stewart’s death to be “consistent with suicide by hanging,” according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Stewart was being held without bail in connection with the Sept. 10 shooting of Arturo Hinojosa, 49, of Petaluma. A woman’s frantic 911 call about a shooting that afternoon led police to find Hinojosa’s body at his home on Suncrest Hill Drive, a narrow lane off Sunnyslope Road in the hills of Petaluma, according to police.

Petaluma police arrested Stewart the next day, Sept. 11, on suspicion of murder, burglary and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was booked into the Sonoma County Jail and at least initially was under special supervision in a mental health unit of the facility, said his attorney Roy E. Miller.

Miller said that Stewart arrived at the jail with “identified mental health issues” as well as medical issues and was receiving treatment for both. During at least two meetings at the jail, Miller said he was aware Stewart was in the jail’s mental health unit.

Assistant Sheriff Randall Walker, who oversees the sheriff’s detention division, said that Stewart was being housed in a general population module at the time of his death. Procedure calls for a correctional officer to conduct rounds through the unit and look into each cell every 30 minutes, he said.

Miller said he did not know his client had been moved.

“How is it that somebody who was in a mental health unit that had been treated for mental health issues, all of a sudden ended up dead on a Sunday morning? To me, it’s a huge concern,” Miller said.

The sheriff’s violent crimes detectives are conducting an investigation into the suicide because it took place while Stewart was incarcerated by the Sheriff’s Office. Investigators with the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office also were called to the jail to look into the death.

Walker said that Stewart did not have a roommate on Sunday and was housed alone in a cell.

A typical module in the main jail has two floors of cells that look onto a central common area with tables, TVs, a book cart, hot water spigot for instant coffee, a row of telephones and access to showers. The central common area also has a desk station for correctional officers.

“For the most part, inmates are under constant direct supervision, the deputy is in there the entire time,” Walker said.

Cell doors have windows and the correctional officers can see throughout much of the module but not necessarily into every cell until they walk around the module as part of routine rounds, Walker said.

Details about when Stewart was last checked by a correctional officer were still under investigation.

Miller said that Stewart was planning to plead not guilty to the charges at a hearing scheduled for Thursday morning. Miller said he was gearing up for a strong case in Stewart’s defense.

Stewart and Hinojosa “knew each other for a long time; there were a whole bunch of things going on that led to the incident that gave rise to him being arrested,” Miller said of his client. “I was looking forward to being able to talk about what happened” in trial.

Stewart leaves behind two young children and a wife, according to Miller. Miller said his client’s wife notified his office about his death.

“The question to ask the Sheriff’s Office is: ‘Were you satisfied his mental health status had improved?’?” Miller said. “It should cause everybody involved to look at what went wrong, what needs to be changed.”