A man who was found to be the aggressor in a fight with another inmate died Wednesday, Dec. 25, after the men were pepper-sprayed by a correctional deputy, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said Thursday.
James Dennis Hirt, 24, of Norco, was the second inmate to die in the past week. He was the sixth person to succumb while in the custody of the Sheriff’s Department in 2024, a total far below the 13 reported by the department in 2023 and the 18 in 2022. The latter figure prompted the state Attorney General’s Office to launch an investigation into the county’s jails.
Hirt had been transferred from Atascadero State Hospital on Nov. 8, county jail records show, for a mental competency hearing in Riverside County Superior Court after being charged in 2022 with a misdemeanor count of possessing illegal drugs in jail.
Around 8:40 p.m. Wednesday at Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning, deputies tried to break up the fight between Hirt and an unidentified cellmate. Deputies deployed the pepper spray and handcuffed the inmates. Bianco said Hirt started the fight.
Hirt then became unresponsive, a sheriff’s news release said. Paramedics treated him, but he was pronounced dead at the jail. The cause of his death is under investigation.
“Other than him being the suspect in a one-sided altercation (victim did not fight back) there is nothing abnormal,” Bianco wrote in an email.
On Sunday, 39-year-old Anthony Wayne Brooks of Riverside was found dead in his cell at Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside. There were no signs of foul play, a news release said. Brooks faced a February trial on four counts of committing lewd acts on a minor younger than 14 years old, court records show.
The cause of Brooks’ death was expected to take several weeks to determine, Bianco said.
The Coroner’s Office has determined the causes for the first four inmate deaths in 2024, Bianco said: Two inmates died by overdose, one died from natural causes and the other committed suicide.
The Attorney General’s Office investigation, which includes a probe of allegations of excessive force and misconduct, is continuing. Bianco has described the investigation as a political stunt and witch hunt.
Several families of the deceased have sued the county, and an investigation by the New York Times and Desert Sun found that some of the deaths in 2022 — including some suicides — were attributable to lapses and neglect by jailers.
Bianco has said the department has spent millions of dollars attempting to keep illegal drugs out of jails and that deputies have saved scores of lives by treating overdoses. Inmates are screened with full-body scanners, and inmates receive education about the dangers of drugs. But drugs can slip through in the mail. Some people have sent inmates letters laced with drugs.
“The media wants people to believe there is something nefarious going on, which is factually incorrect,” Bianco wrote Thursday. “The substantial increase (in previous years) was because of fentanyl and suicides, which have substantially increased in society. … RSO personnel, as well as (hospital) personnel, do a commendable job taking care of our inmates and protecting them from themselves. … We do an industry-leading fantastic job in our corrections division and are not responsible for any of these deaths.”
