WGXC-90.7 FM
State police report third death at Greene Correctional
Mar 25, 2019 2:45 pm
Diane Pineiro-Zucker is reporting for the Daily Freeman another man has died while incarcerated at the Greene Correctional Facility in Coxsackie. John Espinoza, 24, took his own live Feb. 1, the third man to die at the state facility during a two-month period. An attorney, speaking on behalf of Espinoza's family, said he doubts the man hanged himself, as relatives were told, but he provided no evidence that the death was not a suicide, according to Pineiro-Zucker. The attorney, Edward Horn, said letters from Espinoza to family members do not appear to have been written by a depressed or suicidal man. The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Espinoza was serving a 15-year sentence and would not have been eligible for parole until 2025. His death is the third confirmed fatality at the prison in Coxsackie since mid-November 2018, and the fourth at a state prison in the Mid-Hudson Valley during that time. The Daily Freeman has submitted a state Freedom of Information Law request to the corrections department to obtain a list of all deaths and the causes of the deaths at state correctional facilities in Ulster and Greene counties. The department indicated it would determine whether the FOIL request would be granted or denied by March 29. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.