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Cellhouse 1, Pod A at Sterling Correction Facility housed the three men on Colorado’s death row.

A third inmate at Sterling Correctional Facility in northeastern Colorado has died of COVID-19, state public health officials said Wednesday, a grim addition to one of the state’s largest outbreaks of the novel coronavirus.  

While a Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment database said the death had been “confirmed” to be a result of the novel coronavirus, Annie Skinner, a state prison spokeswoman, said the Colorado Department of Corrections is awaiting autopsy results before updating its COVID-19 death count, which remained at two Friday.

Skinner said only that a 48-year-old man had died and declined to name him, citing medical privacy laws.

Logan County Medical Examiner Dave Tennant confirmed in a phone conversation that his office had been notified of the death of Sterling inmate Michael Nunez, 48.

A source told The Gazette that Nunez was found dead in his cell last Sunday morning after suffering symptoms consistent with the deadly respiratory disease.

Colorado corrections facilities see high rates of COVID infections; hundreds of prisoner deaths predicted

Tennant, who said Nunez suffered from poor health, said the autopsy was being performed under contract with the Larimer County Coroner’s Office. Results won’t be available pending toxicology testing, which normally takes four to six weeks, but could take longer because of delays related to the pandemic, he said.

The inmate’s death came as jails and prisons across the state reported a 5% increase in new COVID-19 cases, according to coronavirus tracking data.

The number of cases at Sterling Correctional Facility continued to rise during the past week. The facility reported eight new staff cases, a rise of 25%, and 21 new inmate cases, a 4% increase.

The Van Cise-Simonet Detention Center in Denver reported an increase of 18 inmate cases, but that comes after the jail changed how it reports coronavirus cases to the state. On May 27, the jail reported 316 fewer inmate cases than the week before. State health department officials said the jail changed to reporting only infections determined to be contracted in jail, rather than reporting inmates who were positive upon booking.

The Jefferson County Detention Facility reported eight more inmate cases, bringing the total to 49.

The number of confirmed cases at the Washington County Justice Center nearly quadrupled in the past week. The number of cases in the jail went from seven to 27, or from 3% of the total capacity of the jail to 11%.

In 2002, Nunez, the latest fatality at Sterling, was sentenced to 40 years in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder.

According to a Denver Post report, he was found guilty in the fatal stabbing of Corina Martinez, whose body was found in a Dumpster just off the 16th Street Mall. Nunez and Martinez apparently worked at the downtown food court, the newspaper reported — Nunez at Subway, and Martinez as a security guard. A motive wasn’t disclosed in the report.

Nunez’s next parole hearing was set for May 2023 and his mandatory release date was in 2035, prison records show.

The inmate’s body was discovered days after the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado filed a class-action lawsuit accusing Gov. Jared Polis and Colorado's executive director of corrections of inflicting “cruel and unusual punishment” on prisoners by failing to put in place policies to protect those who are medically vulnerable from dying of COVID-19.

The lawsuit seeks a court order that would require CDOC to prioritize for evaluation for release from state prisons the medically vulnerable, and where release or transfer is not possible, require safe housing conditions that would allow for social distancing.

Colorado’s prison population includes about 2,000 people who are 55 or older and 5,724 who are described as having “medical needs,” the lawsuit said.

ACLU lawsuit claims 'cruel and unusual' punishment of Colorado prisoners during COVID-19 pandemic

The ACLU highlighted similar complaints by Sterling inmates after the death of 86-year-old David Grosse, formerly of Colorado Springs. The Gazette reported former inmate Damien Graves’ account that Grosse was left in his cell with minimal medical care for roughly a week before being taken to a hospital in Sterling, where he later died.

In letters sent to The Gazette after its report was published, two more inmates in Grosse’s ward corroborated Graves' account, saying the elderly inmate received little help even as he rapidly declined with obvious symptoms of the disease.

Inmate Anthony Carcel — previously identified by Graves as Grosse’s primary caretaker — wrote that he carried Grosse to the bathroom, fed him, dispensed his medication twice daily and changed “his soiled clothing and diapers, all day.”

“As each day went on, he got progressively worse,” wrote Carcel, 54. “Medical would come and check on him, take his temperature, and basically do an exterior observation and leave.”

Inmate Benton Scott, 58, wrote that Carcel was one of two people who deserved recognition for “care and comfort” they provided as Grosse’s condition deteriorated.  

“He was not eating on his own. He was shivering, and he was soiling himself,” Scott said. “In my opinion, he should have been taken out long before he was.”

Before dying of COVID-19, Sterling prison inmate deprived of care, former resident says

Grosse, who was serving four years to life for child sex offenses, had previously fallen twice while in custody, suffering head injuries, Carcel said. 

"Long before this pandemic, we all felt David should be housed at a facility where he could have more personal care," Carcel said. 

Skinner previously called Graves’ claims “inaccurate,” saying inmates who are ill are “provided with access to medical care.”

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