Suspected Watsonville Killer Found Dead In Santa Cruz Co. Jail

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, CA — A Santa Cruz County Main Jail inmate was found dead in his cell Monday morning.

According to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office, German Carrillo, 24, who had been held in the county's jail since April 2013 on murder and other charges, was found dead in his cell at about 11 a.m. Monday.

Officials are calling the death a probable homicide by another inmate. An autopsy will be performed on Carrillo's body this week to determine a cause of death.

Carrillo shared a cell with other inmates, sheriff's officials said.

He was initially charged as a 17-year-old in 2013 as one of multiple defendants in the beating and stabbing death of Felipe Reyes in Watsonville, county prosecutors said.

Carrillo's death marks the second at the San Cruz facility in just two days. James Kohut, 59, who had been jail since May 2017 on felony sex-related charges, was found dead at the same jail on Sunday. Kohut did not share a cell with other inmates and was in a protective housing unit, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff-Coroner said in a news release.

Correctional Officers found him alone in his cell when breakfast service began at 5:45 a.m.

Kohut, a neurosurgeon jailed on multiple felony counts related to the alleged sexual abuse of four children, worked at Dominican Hospital.

It is suspected that Kohut took his own life.

—Toni McAllister contributed to this report.