A Joshua Tree man committed suicide in the West Valley Detention Center Tuesday. According to a Sheriff’s press release, a deputy found Joseph Mendoza, 35, hanging in the bathroom of an inmate housing unit about 3:10 Tuesday afternoon. The deputy immediately moved Mendoza to the floor and attempted life-saving measures until medical aid arrived, but Mendoza was pronounced deceased at the scene. Joseph Mendoza had been in custody since March 13 when he was arrested for resisting arrest.
Deputies had been called to a home in the 56500 block of Anaconda Drive in Yucca Valley March 13 when the resident said Mendoza, who was drunk, had come over uninvited and passed out in her garage. Mendoza’s public defender had requested several times to have Mendoza released on his own recognizance, but Judge Joel Agron denied the requests, and Mendoza had been held in jail on $50,000 bail until his suicide.
