Former Sonoma County Jail inmate dies from in-custody head injury

A former inmate at Sonoma County Jail died Saturday at a local hospital of apparent complications from a head injury he received while incarcerated, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said Monday.

Michael Webber, 48, was unresponsive and “appeared to be having a seizure” when a correctional deputy found Webber alone in his cell at about 1:40 a.m. on July 4, according to a prepared statement from the Sheriff’s Office.

Then Webber was taken to an unidentified local hospital for a head injury, the statement said, though it provided no additional details about the injury or what caused it. A spokeswoman did not return requests for comment Monday.

On July 9, a county judge released Webber from the custody of the Sheriff’s Office. He was homeless and had been booked into the local jail on June 29 on suspicion of vandalism and violating his probation.

He had remained at the local hospital until dying there Saturday.

Investigators with the Sheriff’s Office’s violent crimes unit and the Sonoma County Coroner’s Office, also run by the sheriff, are investigating Webber’s death because “it appears he died from complications from the injury he received while in the jail,” the statement from the Sheriff’s Office said.

You can reach Staff Writer Nashelly Chavez at 707-521-5203 or nashelly.chavez@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @nashellytweets.