Juan Moreno Dies in Shasta County Custody
Moreno was still awaiting trial. It’s not yet clear what caused his death. He’s the fifth person to die in the Shasta County jail in the last two years.
Just before midnight on January 23, 2025 during what was ostensibly a routine welfare check, staff at the Shasta County Jail discovered the body of Juan Moreno unresponsive in his cell. Moreno, like many of the people he was being held with, was still awaiting trial.
After medical staff attempted to resuscitate him, the 27-year old Redding man was declared dead. His next of kin were notified and an autopsy is underway. A Shasta County Sheriff Office press release stated that their Major Crimes Unit and the Redding Police Department are conducting an investigation into the in-custody death. If history is any precedent, the departments’ findings may not be revealed for many months, as the investigation proceeds out of the public’s view.
According to publicly available data on the government website Open Justice, the County’s number of deaths, either at the hands of law enforcement or while behind bars, totals 71 since 2006. Of these, 40 have died while in custody of Shasta County’s carceral system–35 of them, like Moreno, died while still presumed innocent under California law.
On New Year’s Day 2023, California Government Code § 12525 went into effect, compelling local law enforcement to disclose the basic details of in-custody deaths on their websites. Since then, five people have died at the Shasta County Jail. Four of the deceased were people of color, a startlingly high percentage when compared to an average 80% White population at the Jail, according to data aggregated in 2020.
Shasta County’s number of law-enforcement connected deaths is a mere fraction of the staggering 14,398 Californians who have been killed by police or died within the carceral system since 2005. Those deaths have been attributed to a variety of causes including suicides, overdoses, violent encounters between people held in the jail, or the most commonly cited and least specific reason, “natural.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article stated that 70 people in Shasta County have either been killed by police during an arrest or died in custody, according to Open Justice. The correct figure is 71.
Do you have a correction to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org.
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Off topic, but it was mentioned on your IG story that Chriss Street has been awarded a consulting contract and supposedly had the best work. Was there ever a competitive procurement for those services? Because the county has a website listing those, and it’s not clear the county ever put out an RFP. https://www.shastacounty.gov/purchasing/page/competitive-procurements
Shasta Rocks: I have requested any such applications. I do not believe there was ever a competitive process. From Board conversations with CEO David Rickert it appears he was given latitude to use his professional judgement in appointing this consulting gig. I am confirming.
As someone who has spent 8 months of 2024 in Shasta county jail and is quite familiar how things regularly happen. I can tell you I find some problems with the story their giving. Number 1 they say they found him unresponsive at right around midnight, well they lock everyone down at about 5:30 p.m. and there are some people that stay up yelling in the vents and out there doors but that’s usually done by 9:00 p.m. because there is a 10 p:m: to 10 a.m. rule the t.v. stays quiet and the yelling stops and it is enforced by inmates. So everybody is technically unresponsive at midnight. The prowlers do their walk through once an hour they walk by each cell but they don’t stop and look in your cell they just walk by usually as fast as they can so nobody can ask them for anything so for him to be found unresponsive at midnight definitely sounds questionable. But when ever there is a death or serious inmate injury they turn the phones off and the whole jail goes on administrative lock down for at least 24-48 hours minimum. So the inmates can’t let friends or family know the real story. While I was there this guy who was going through detox swung a broom and hit 1 of the guards in the back with it and they had this guy down and cuffed in less than 20 seconds then they come and put the magnetic strips over our windows so we couldn’t see what was going on by that time there were 4 or 5 guards there. Then you could hear a serious beat down. Some solid punches/baton strikes/kicks were being delivered to this guy in handcuffs while he was gasping and crying trying to get them to stop all I gotta say is stuff happens all the time that most of the general public would never believe happens at the hands of our local law enforcement. Also then being investigated by Redding police department is like if O.J. Simpson had his brothers, cousins and close friends as the jurors for a suspect at trial they will ” not notice anything suspect 10/10 times guaranteed. It should be a requirement that all in custody deaths and officer involved shootings be investigated by law enforcement from at least two counties away.
I think they should have to wear body cams just like PD when interacting with inmates. To many “What ifs” and several concerning statements.
Several years back there was an escape attempt at Shasta county jail. One of the two inmates who were trying to escape was found dead not long after. The claim was that he had cut his own arteries (femoral, jugular and carotid, and I believe radial). Basically they said he had wrapped himself in a wool blanket and cut his own throat, wrists, and upper thighs with a razor blade from a shaver that is not even allowed in that pod. Hmmm. Okay so when I later learned that Redding police department was investigating it,I knew that nothing was going to come of it since a Shasta county sheriff was hurt terribly during the escape attempt. He was already in jail for burning a few synagogues and a women’s health clinic as well as for the murder of two local gay men. To everyone reading the news paper his life wasn’t a hhhhhhhhhhhhuuyymleat loss. However right is right, and wrong is wrong. EVERY death lookingn 0pcustody should be looked at with an impartial eye. Not always the easiest thing to do, but how can we the public have 100% faith in the system when it continues to show bias so blatantly?? I can speak on so many horror stories from Shasta county as well as several other counties, but what good would it do now?? Everytime I have attempted to speak up about things I end up being punished for it. So who am I supposed to turn to in order to have things dealt with properly??
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Very nice Nevin. Thanks
A few years ago an acquaintance of mine was almost certainly beaten to the point of fatal brain injury in Shasta County Jail shortly after his being detained. His family was not notified of anything being amiss for several days until after he was taken off life support at Mercy Dignity Hospital and died, at which point they were invited to retrieve his belongings and auto. His family was informed he beat his own head on the cell wall to the point of injury. It was a terrible situation. Since then I’ve been deeply suspicious of those “natural-cause” deaths in the facility.
I’m wondering why the DOJ hasn’t started an investigation into the “random” deaths of inmates.
They don’t have to take fentanyl, which is the cause of the majority of jail deaths where causes are reported so far.
Terribly sad for their families, of course, but why is law enforcement being slagged here instead of the drug dealers who are killing people left and right?
How would inmates be getting fentanyl? If they are then that is definitely a “law enforcement” issue. Are correctional officer’s bringing in the fentanyl? Are they letting visitors bring in Fentanyl? Hmm… all roads lead to law enforcement not doing their jobs properly if most of these “deaths” while incarcerated are occurring. And why are POC dying at a higher rate than white people? Hmmm……
Maybe these are more appropriate questions that need to be asked.
It’s really, really hard to keep drugs out of jails. Sadly.
Nevin here, author of the article. If you actually look at the open source data, there have been two “accidental” deaths to occur in the County Jail, and only one was recorded as an overdose. Far more common are in-jail suicides: 22 incidents since 2006.
I agree, the jail staff and PD are innocent until proven guilty also.
Sure. Just like parents are innocent when their children die unless/until there is evidence of intentional harm. Which is why there are always investigations in such cases. No one is “slagging” parents when questions are asked. Neither is it “slagging” law enforcement to recount factual data when documenting a death in custody.
What percent of current inmates are awaiting trial and how long have they been waiting?
What % of current inmates are awaiting trial and how long have they been waiting?
What % of current jail inmates are awaiting trial?
Alice: I can ask for that data in Shasta. I’ll note that across the state it’s about 76%, according to California’s Public Policy 2024 Fact Sheet.
According to the Sheriff’s “in custody” webpage tonight, 66% (254 out of 386) are being held “no bail” or until a certain bail amount is paid.
The remaining 34% have “N/A” under the bail heading, presumably meaning they’ve been sentenced to jail.
Annelise, you and your team do great work in general.
The tone of this piece is not up to your usual standards of objectivity. “Startlingly,” “staggering.” “died while still presumed innocent.”
Shasta Rocks: Appreciate the feedback. I actually stand by all three of these, but especially the last. Presumption of innocence is a fundamental standard of the American justice system.