Nine-Year-Old’s Alleged Killer Found Hanged in Jail Cell
Josue Pena, the man accused of firing the shot that killed nine-year-old Oscar Fuentes, was found hanging in his cell at the D.C. Jail and has died, police have confirmed.
Pena, 26, had been charged with first-degree murder, allegedly shooting blindly through the door of a Columbia Heights apartment, striking young Fuentes on the other side. Neighbors reported that Pena was known in the community as sicopata---"psychopath." According to WTTG-TV: "Jail officials say Pena was found hanging in his cell just after 1 p.m. He was immediately taken to Howard University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead."
The Washington Post posted a report of an unconscious inmate shortly before 2 p.m. Police spokesperson Kevin Palmer says the incident has been deemed a "suspicious death."
WTOP reports: "D.C. Department of Corrections spokesperson Sylvia Lane says Pena was placed in a special management unit that is reserved for inmates who require enhanced supervision for security reasons....Lane says Pena, who was described as an associate of MS-13, died of cardiac arrest brought on by asphyxiation. His death is under investigation."
Nila Ritenour, chair of the D.C. Jail officers union, tells City Desk that Pena had been incarcerated in South One, where inmates in protective custody are held. Inmates there, she says, usually have a cell to themselves; Pena was being checked on at least every 30 minutes. "All the officers had done their checks," she says, saying that Pena had committed suicide between the inspections.
Says Ritenour: "He was just quiet, a quiet person. I don’t know if he was thinking about everything in his life or what. He just kept to himself."
Jail spokesperson Sylvia Lane also calls the death the result of an "apparent suicide attempt" and says corrections officials are "in the middle of fact-finding."
UPDATE, 8:49 P.M.: Lane just e-mailed to provide a little more context to Pena's apparent suicide. She writes that Pena was housed in his own cell. There were four guards on duty and assigned to Pena's block at the time of his death. As to the question: When was the last time a guard checked in on Pena? That is being investigated.
And Councilmember Jim Graham has released a statement on Pena's apparent suicide:
"It is my sincerest hope that the Metropolitan Police Department and the D.C. Department of Corrections fully investigate the death of Josue Pena.
But his death, though unexpected, means that justice may have been served in the murder of 9-year-old Oscar Fuentes."
This is crass even for the Grahamstander. The councilmember should know that defendants are innocent until proven guilty. Justice is never served by a defendant's suicide. ---Jason Cherkis
Additional reporting and snarky Graham commentary by Jason Cherkis
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7:14 pm
Don't cry for me Adams Morgan. I hope he hung there for a long time alive and suffered.
7:28 pm
COWARD, his last move was his best move, dc jail is good 4 something afterall!
8:45 pm
There is a political imbreeding in DC Politics that they (DC politicians) do not see how mutated and warped from tasteful their actions are
9:20 pm
What a punk assed, self-serving, politically motivated comment from Graham. Shut the hell up, jerk!
9:46 pm
I heard a rumor that the shooter (Josue Pena) is related by blood or marriage to Oscar Fuentes. Is this true?
@ Lea/Truth Hurts
Politics isn't played by Judith Martin of Kingsbury. Crass or not, CM Graham gave voice to what many in ward 1 think.
9:48 pm
Kingsbury, queensbury, whatever. it's the 21st century. (oops)
7:02 am
...and George Wallace gave voice to what many people in Alabama thought in the 60s as well. That's not leadership, that's pandering to the lowest common denominator. So hey, Jim, maybe we can save a whole lot of money in the fy 2011 budget by mailing rope and shivs to the jail and letting the (pre-trial) inmates "serve some justice" and save the taxpayer lots of money to boot! Beats raising those parking meter raters every year, huh Jimbo?
8:22 am
"Downtown Rez" if you live downtown as your online handle on many blogs would lead people to believe, then you don't live in Ward One, so thanks for telling us what many of us in Ward One are thinking...
11:47 am
Sure, no problem. And my thanks to you for defining "downtown" to me, Ward 1.
:)
3:09 pm
I wish Graham would hang himself.
9:22 pm
In PG County a black man kills a police officer and is found hanged in his cell. The state police rule it a suicide and 98% of the people are outraged.
In DC an Hispanic man kills a little boy and hangs himself and a city councilman and most other people say he got what he deserved.
9:23 pm
Let me correct my last post.
"a black man is found dead in his cell and the state police rule that it was a suicide by hanging"
9:40 pm
I knew Josue personally. He was no gangbanger, and no murderer. He was a hard-working father of four who had fallen on desperate times. I don't condone his actions, but I know that he would never deliberately have harmed a child. I don't know whether he took his own life in agony over the consequences of his actions, or whether others saw fit to take it from him, but his family and friends deserve the truth.
8:08 am
No one cares if an illegal alien from El Salvador killed himself. I wish more would do it.
10:51 am
Jon Bon Jovi- Your songs suck.
Glad to see the good Christian thing is working out well for so many of you all.
I don't the facts of the case yet, but neither does the rest of you. This country is supposed to function on a system designed around innocent until proven guilty. If he was guilty, he should have faced punishment. If he was not guilty, someone should be held accountable.
DC has the highest rate of unsolved crimes (murders and robberies), yet within days, this guy was apprehended, and now we'll never know the truth. It just strikes me a weird.
Also, how was this guy able to hang himself in jail. What was the fucking jailers doing? Any videos, witnesses? How long does it take for a person to die through strangulation?
2:24 pm
On Wed Nov 25,2009 @ 1pm 3 cowards from Faith/Fake Tabernacle of Prayer for All Peoples located next door to 7D police(one is the nephew of Pastor Judy Talbert, alsoson of a co-pastor there in SE,his wife an ugly bitch, their grown son kept cursing,giving them the bird-you know the fuck you finger- to this senior citizen and his 10 yr. old son while leaving a Boston Market in Riverdale, Maryland. These 3 creeps, one of whom works at DC Superior Court is Talbert's nephew drives a maroon DC Tag #CB 5563 Chevrolet Surburban kept trying to get the guy out of his car and even blocked his van in traffic AFTER leaving the Boston Market lot.
These SE church pastors are full of shit, their members are mainly robotic imbeciles possesed by something evil and too bad more suicides are not in churches of ill-repute. This Pastor lady Judy Talbert sued in court the same man mentioned herein for $12 million dollars and was awarded a measly One-hundred-dollars. Jason or one of you other reporters here look up the case in DC 2004 CA 005722 Judy Talbert et al vs. Jacques Chevalier. This church and its members will not quit the bullshit against a law-abiding citizen. Their phone numbers are in the court jacket for both parties,fuckin unbelievalbe that Fenty, Barry,Harold Brazill, Chief of Police and Sandy Allen visits this fuckin church. Tell Prez Obama to watch his back and face if he gets duped to visit these sick-lying-cheating-violent-prone church folk nex t door to 7D police...only in Southeast!
2:38 pm
Dear Loose Lips please llok up the csse of Judy Talbert-she is a relative of the$54 mil pants guy in terms of outrageous money sought from a por black landlord in SE Talbert's next door neighbor. This, excuse me while I digress,uh gulp Pastor is never going to admit how evil adn crooked her 300 lbs really is. Get thsi the fat bitch is a descendant of Marcus Garvey, well her sister married a due cousin of Garvey's had nine motherfuckin' kids by thsi motherfucker and the negroe died. Speculation is she too is overweight at 300 lbs or more and both women at the church are about 5'6" tops. Fat, BLack ugly, manless and miserable bitches who son and nephew now want to fuck with this Chevalier guy who has kids , married and quite handsome.
GOD don't like ugly is the mantra in black churches but these sicko-religeous zealots are beyond the scope of interpretation of distinction when looks are involved. Go see for your fucking self if you'll disagree I tell my name here and will stand up and be whipped in public by a stripper from SE. And give %500 to ONE lucky reader of LLD who can describe how ugly these two women pastors are in terms worse than mine.
4:38 pm
First off, 'I' who ever you are Josue Pena, was a low life punk who was a preditor in that neighborhood it's a shame that a child had to die because of this coward.
'Jon Bon Jovi', you are one angry and ignorant man, why don't you try a bed sheet on for size!
Finally, 'dcblackdaddy', what the hell are you talking about! How does this relate to the story of Josue Pena? I think you need put the bottle down!
5:03 pm
Rick Mangus: You are so fucking right, except I do not do drugs.alcohol,cigars or the like. Just hoping those crooked preachers and thier kin get the message and quit fucking with the dude Chevalier or they should follow suit like the illegal alien J Pena.
These 3 cowards I wrote about are just trying to kill the spirits of a decent guy and I want LOOSE LIPS dude to check the shit flying out the ass of a well-conNECTED preacher bitch in SE who fucks over people like her nephew exhibited by cursing out an 10 yr old and this is what lead us to behavior pattern of latin-illegals killing innocent 9 year old in Adams Morgan/Columbia Hgts...They think no one is watching and if anything happens to this man and his child then LOOSE LIPS is/was the first to report it again in the city.
In other words this is a story that needs checking into and I do not need to check inot the rest home but thank you for inspiring me Rick M to answer you, sir.
11:34 pm
Adrian Bent-Me, so you don't like my music. Guess what you fucking liberal loser, I am wealthy and your ass is poor looking for social handouts from the government.
Rick Mangus, your comment to DCBlackDaddy was funny but on point.
DCBlackDaddy, you have been doing too much "CRACK". What in the hell are you rambling about? We topic of the story is an illegal alien low life from El Salvador who had ties to the dangerous Salvadoran gang MS-13. He knew he was wrong for what he did, therefore he killed himself. I wish more savages like him would kill themselves.
11:37 pm
DCBlackDaddy, you have been doing too much "CRACK". What in the hell are you rambling about? The topic of the story is about an illegal alien low life from El Salvador who had ties to the dangerous Salvadoran gang MS-13. He knew he was wrong for what he did, therefore he killed himself. I wish more savages like him would kill themselves. The same goes for the savages that shot and killed people on Havard Street, NW on Thanksgiving morning.
12:14 pm
I personally knew Josue also and i know he did not mean to kill that child as the news has led you to believe. He was a man who fell on hard times and was trying to do better thru hard work and odd jobs from friends. Unfortunately he felt like he was rock bottom and did something stupid which led to an accident. I in no way shape or form condone what happened either. But to plaster him as a monster who deliberately did this on purpose gives the most inaccurate view of him possible. He actually loved kids. He was the type they had the endless energy to pay attention and play with them.
@Rick: He wasnt a low life. He was a devoted father and a friend to many.
@Jon Bon Jovi: i saw him all the time and he was no savage. He actually smiled all the time and was quiet unless he had a question and spoken too. He also was no gangbanger. that is just a case of guilty by association. Thats just like saying you are an associate of the KKK/skin heads just because some of the people you know are in it. Thrust me if he was a gangbanger he would have been IN the gang but he made the smart choice not to.
I agree with the author when he said:
"This is crass even for the Grahamstander. The councilmember should know that defendants are innocent until proven guilty. Justice is never served by a defendant's suicide."
Not to mention how does someone in a jail under supervision hang himself when there is not supposed to be anything in there that he can hang himself with or on?....
12:57 pm
Jon Bon Jovi you too are right, but I don't fuck with any kind of crack except pfunking pussy. You guys are not hearing me I am realting how ignorant church-going foools also kill the souls and will of thier followers sometimes and they too should be honorable and commit suicide and save the community.
Yes, I fucking rambled cause this shitscene at the restaurant fucking annoyede my so fucking bad and I want someone to really look at how this pastor lady Tlabert manufactures people to be evil in our community and they are the real abusers of substances...just cannot figure out or have a clue what the fuck them SE Black church ignoramus scum are puffing/swallowing/shooting in their skulls.
Thank you Jon Bon Jovi for being critical and ask Jason C.or Mikke DE or Loose Lips to pull this fuckin case or would you and read the Final Order and comment afterwards and win $500.00 dollars if you blst this fat-black-church-fake-bitch Talbert worse than I can.Open contest to all,maybe Loose Lips boy canlink the case in this people newspaper,seeing they are the only ones left in this city and we negroes want them to stay.
1:54 pm
"I am realting how ignorant church-going foools also kill the souls and will of thier followers"..."annoyede my so fucking bad"...
Ignorant as in can't spell nor form sentences? Or is there another kind of ignorant? I would love to see what you use as a dictionary, daddy.
(Daddy was not, sadly, reflected in the latest Clarus poll regarding Fenty and possible challengers. Pollsters are still translating the audio from his phone questionnaire.)
1:12 am
DCBlackDaddy, what in the hell a black church in Southeast Washington have to do with this story? The story is about an illegal alien from El Salvador who shot and killed a 9 year old child in Columbia Heights Northwest Washington. Please put the fucking Jack Daniels bottle down and commit yourself into Saint Elizabeths Mental Hospital. Oops, I forget Mayor Adrian Fenty closed and privatize the D.C. Department of Mental Health. You might not be able to get the appropriate help you need DCBlackDaddy.
4:03 pm
'Peace', let me tell you about your so-called friend, Josue, he was according to police intel reports to be a preditor on hard working people in the area. Also that line of shit that he fell on hard time, I was diagnosed with diabete's and a bad heart a few years ago. I had open heart surgury a year ago, I have also had several other surgeries over the past years. I guess I fell on hard times too, but you didn't see me going around with a gun, robbing people and killing them.
When you say that line that he did not mean to kill a child, he sure in the hell wanted to kill or hurt someone by having that gun with him and firing it that night into that door.
If he was such a devoted father than why wasn't he at home taking care of his kids, instead of being a low life punk on the streets!
As far as hanging himself in jail, GOOD!, he just saved the tax payers of the city alot of money.
You know in this town there are thousands of construction jobs for unskilled labor, why did he not get one of them? Another point I feel has to be made, was he a US citizen?
When you take a human life there is a special place in hell for you.
6:49 pm
LOL@Rick Mangus! Rick you told the truth and I am sorry about your health problems. We all have some type of problems in our lives, but we don't go out killing and robbing people like this Salvadoran savage. The majority of the people living in El Salvador are uneducated and live like animals. Now they have brought their third world customs to the United States and have trashed many white and black middle class neighborhoods.
6:11 am
I think Jon Bon Jovi is saying Pena was wanted: dead or alive.
10:11 am
Mangus how are you going to tell me about someone you didnt even know first hand? Did he shoot the kid? yes. Did he mean to? No. Was he going there with the intent to kill or hurt someone? no. He thought he was just going to scare some people to give up their wallets. Why wasnt he at home? because technically he didnt have one and if youve ever had a gf then you know after an argument that is one of the last places you want to be. Thousands of construction jobs? Where? You need to publish that site because I need to know and I def havent seen those around. He had a carpenter job if i remember right plus doing odd jobs for some friends. Even still when you are trying to support a family doing everything you can doesnt always seem like enough. Is that a reason to rob someone? no. Should he have hung himself? no, and suicide and blasphamy are the only sins you cant be forgiven for. I dont condone what he did but the way that he is painted as a person by the media is incorrect.
2:01 pm
'Peace' answer this, you say he was just scaring people with that gun to get their wallets than why was it a loaded gun. If this low life was down on his luck he sure had money to buy the gun and the bullets, did he not! The other thing you can go to any construction site in this city and sign up for daily work!, any site!
Since you claim to know all about his case history then why did you not help him?
As far as me knowing this creature there is an old saying, "If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, then it can only be a duck"
I just found out that this low life was in this country, my country illegaly and if it wasn't for dumb ass liberals in this country and city he should of been deported.
9:52 pm
Celebrating a pretrial detainee's suicide at the DC jail is really sick. There's no joy here, at least not for decent, thoughtful folks.
10:23 pm
To all those people who think this creature was a human being, I guess you would feel sad if Osama Bin Laden was caught and hung himself in jail!
11:33 pm
Rick: You win the Giuliani Award for Most Unnecessary 9/11 Reference in a blog comment. Congrats.
12:18 am
@ Rick mangus thoughts come from thinking thinking comes from not knowing so tell us what you KNOW you are clearly a racist this country does not belong to you or anyone
11:37 am
Let me tell you something 'LOVE' and I will even try to keep it simple to accommodate the limited education level that you have displayed. This is my country, I was born here, I have defended this country, I pay taxes here, I am a productive member of my community, can you say the same?
People who cry out racism to win an argument are in fact the same people who are intolerant and bigoted morons themselves, dose that hit home?
As far as using Bin Laden as an EXAMPLE, I was showing the extreme in how some of these bleeding hearts will go in defending that low life, Pena.
11:53 am
Rick Mangus, why are you arguing with these fucking liberals. D.C. is a sanctuary city for illegal aliens. Wards 1 & 4 in Washington now have the dangerous Salvadoran gangs MS-13, Mara Salvatrucha, STC (Street Thug Criminals), and Vatos Locos. Many of these members in these gangs are illegal aliens. Shit, I wish all would hang themselves. This savage that killed himself in jail saved D.C. taxpayers money with a long trial and possible prison time. Peace him or herself is probably an illegal alien/non-citizen from El Salvador/Central America or some fucking bleeding heard liberal. I don't have any sympathy for any savage regardless of color that takes the life of a child, senior citizen, or rape and kill another human being voilent.
12:11 pm
Rick Mangus, why are you arguing with these fucking liberals? D.C. is a sanctuary city for illegal aliens. Wards 1 & 4 in Washington now have the dangerous Salvadoran gangs MS-13, Mara Salvatrucha, STC (Street Thug Criminals), and Vatos Locos. Many of the members in these gangs is illegal aliens. Shit, I wish all would hang themselves. The savage that killed himself in jail saved D.C. taxpayers money without a long trial and possible prison time. Peace is probably an illegal alien/non-citizen from El Salvador/Central America or some fucking bleeding heart liberal. I don't have any sympathy for any savage regardless of race/ethnicity that takes the life of a child, senior citizen, or rape and kill another human being violently. Liberal Mayor Adrian King Malik Fenty and the 13 member Council of the District of Columbia supports illegal immigration with their liberal left wing progressive policies. I don't support illegal immigration and Rick Mangus, yes this is your country. The savage that killed himself had a country and it's called El Salvador. He and millions on his countrymen and women should have kept their asses home and protested of the Salvadoran government for a better life and opportunities.
12:21 pm
To 'Jon Bon Jovi', I guess I like a good argument, some people can't present their weak case without putting racism in to play.
4:21 pm
@ rick mangus we all can see that you are clearly a racist that has nothing to do but have arguments with people to justify your racist comments
4:32 pm
and to you jon bon jovi... on november 27th didnt rick mangus call you angry and ignorant and didnt he tell you to try a bed sheet on for size you are still talking so i see you didnt take his advice
10:05 pm
'love' how are my comments, "RACIST", give me one good example, this isn't rocket science, but for you it might be. It's shows you ignorance and lack of education, so tell me how you come up with this brilliant deduction?
Like I said before when people can not win an argument or explain their postion, but cry "RACIST" it shows bigotry and intolerance on their part.
6:56 pm
NO RESPONSE LOVE, I THOUGHT SO.
9:13 pm
@ rick mangus, man go on an admit that you are a racist, hell I'd respect you more especially after reading your post about lil wayne, but nevertheess YOU STATE THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH!
@ I and PEACE, your logic is as ridiculous as the fact that this illegal cunt recklessly possessed, sought out, aimed, fired and ULTIMATELY killed an innocent child! Hard times are not ISOLATED to illegals, in fact it's rather common in US households, GTFOH with that lame ass excuse!