Rikers Island inmate hangs himself inside his prison cell on New Year's Day
Fabian Cruz, 35, was found dead during a routine check by the prison guard. The guard who found Cruz tried to revive him, but the convicted sex offender was already dead, according to sources.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Friday, January 2, 2015, 3:10 PM
- A
- A
- A
SETH WENIG/APCruz was due on Jan. 12 for a sentence of five years after pleading guilty to a felony sex charge, but was found dead in his cell on New ear's Day.
A city correction officer tried desperately to revive a convicted sex offender who hanged himself inside a Rikers Island cell on New Year’s Day, sources said.
An investigation continued Friday into the apparent suicide of Fabian Cruz, 35, of Staten Island, who was discovered during a routine check in the Robert N. Davoren Complex at 5 p.m., authorities said.
Officials released no details about the hanging, although he was inside the department’s most controversial facility — primarily used to hold troubled teens.
Video surveillance shows the correction officer on duty carefully checking the housing unit at least every half hour as required per department rules, a source said.
“He found him right away," the source added. “The tape shows he desperately tried to bring him back ... performing CPR.”
Cruz pleaded guilty Dec. 16 to a felony sex charge after an indictment for repeatedly groping his girlfriend’s 14-year-old daughter over a three-year period starting in 2009, according to court records.
He was due for a Jan. 12 sentence of five years in a plea bargain deal.
Cruz had earlier pleaded guilty on unrelated felony counts of third-degree burglary and aggravated criminal contempt. He was sentenced in April to up to five years in prison, records show.
Mayor de Blasio has vowed to repair the scandal-scarred city Department of Correction, which has come under fire after several inmate deaths, a spike in violence and intense condemnations from critics that solitary confinement is overused.
Cruz was not in a solitary cell, records show.
De Blasio visited the Davoren complex last month and briefly spoke with several inmates in a new second-chance program.
Hizzoner's first budget has set aside $32.5 million to boost correction staff and buy additional surveillance cameras.
One day later, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara sued the city and accused correction honchos of failing to do enough to clean up the facility.
In August, Bharara released a blistering report slamming the treatment of young inmates inside the complex.
