An illegal alien who had led police on a manhunt after allegedly killing five people was found dead in his jail cell in St. Louis, Missouri, police said.
Pablo Serrano-Vitorino, 43, was found in his cell, alone, and non-responsive at around 2 a.m. on April 9, officials at the St. Louis Justice Center said.
He was subsequently taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead at around 3 a.m., authorities said in a statement. Officials did not provide details on how the 43-year-old died.
News Release:Reference: Death of Pablo Serrano-Vitorino Pablo Update: 04/09/2019 09:38 a.mAfter speaking with the…
Posted by Montgomery County MO Sheriff's Office on Tuesday, April 9, 2019
Serrano-Vitorino, who was in the United States illegally, was charged with five counts of first-degree murder when he allegedly went on a shooting spree in March 2016.
It began in Kansas City, Kansas, where he gunned down his neighbor Mike Capps, 41, and three other men—brothers Austin Harter, 29, and Clint Harter, 27, as well as Jake Waters 36—at Capps home.
Serrano-Vitorino then fled the scene before police arrived in his pickup truck and drove to Missouri, where he allegedly killed Randy Nordman, 49. He was eventually captured after police found him hiding face-down in a ditch a few miles away from Nordman’s home. He was armed with a rifle at the time.
The 43-year-old was being held in St. Louis awaiting for trial in Nordman’s killing at the time of his death, which was scheduled for October. Missouri prosecutors said they were seeking the death penalty.
Serrano-Vitorino attempted to kill himself after he was placed in among the general prison population at the Montgomery County Jail, reported Fox 4.
Lawsuit
The killings prompted a lawsuit launched by relatives of two of his Kansas victims. It claimed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials had negligently allowed Serrano-Vitorino, a Mexican national, to remain in the country illegally on two occasions, reported The Kansas City Star.
According to the suit, Serrano-Vitorino re-entered the country illegally before fatally shooting four men.
Posted by The Kansas City Star on Monday, July 10, 2017
He was deported back to Mexico after he was convicted of a felony in 2003 but he illegally re-entered the United States, where he was arrested in 2014 and 2015 for other offenses.
In 2014, Serrano-Vitorino was arrested for battery but was released after ICE did not send an agent to the jail despite being informed.
Then in 2015, Serrano-Vitorino was fingerprinted in Kansas for traffic offenses. ICE agents had asked the jail to hold him in custody but the paperwork was sent to a different Kansas jail, according to the lawsuit. He was subsequently released from custody.
“Clint and Randy’s deaths are the direct and proximate result of the failure of ICE officials, officers and/or agents to carry out their required duties, which failure provided the means for a convicted felon who was illegally in the country, but in custody, to be released and kill Clint and Randy and three other victims,” the lawsuit said, reported the newspaper in 2018.
An ICE spokesman said at the time that the agency doesn’t comment on pending cases, and noted that “lack of comment should not be construed as agreement with or stipulation to any of the allegations,” reported Fox News.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times
