Suspected Child Molester Dies After Being Hospitalized for Weeks While in Custody
A California inmate who had been charged with child molestation died in a San Diego County hospital while he was awaiting trial two weeks ago, according to police.
The man, who was 71, had been incarcerated in a county corrections facility since 2021 and was hospitalized on March 29 due to an undisclosed medical issue.
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office said the inmate, who was identified as Maximillian Aguirre, died at a hospital in Oceanside, California, as he was awaiting trial.
“On May 16, 2023, Sheriff’s Homicide investigators were notified 71-year-old Maximillian Aguirre, an individual in Sheriff’s custody, passed away at Tri-City Hospital around 3 p.m.,” police said in a news release.
“Aguirre had extensive medical issues unrelated to his incarceration, and had been hospitalized since March 29, 2023,” the sheriff’s office also said.
The department further extended sympathies to the man’s family and anyone it said might have been “affected by his death.”
The sheriff’s office also said it made a family liaison officer available to Aguirre’s loved ones.
Aguirre, who resided in the community of Spring Valley, was arrested on Dec. 16, 2021, by the department’s Fugitive Task Force and had been incarcerated since.
He was charged with four counts of oral copulation with a victim under the age of 10 and with 11 counts of lewd lascivious acts with a child under 14 with force.
Fifteen of his sex crimes charges were felonies, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Aguirre was scheduled to face trial later this month.
His death is under investigation by the county medical examiner’s office.
The medical examiner’s office explains on its website it could be later this year before an official cause of death is determined, which it attributed to a backlog of cases.
“Due to a sustained increase in our case load, the current average time for a Medical Examiner’s case to close, or for causes to be determined on a pending case is 4 to 6 months,” the medical examiner said.
The sheriff’s office is also conducting its own investigation.
Aguirre was the fifth inmate to die while in the custody of the San Diego Sheriff’s Office in 2023.
The Union-Tribune reported 19 people died while in custody in the county in 2022.
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