MOM MAY SUE OVER HER SON'S DEATH IN JAIL

Pittsburg -- The mother of an 18-year-old Pittsburg man who apparently
hanged himself at a Contra Costa jail said she tried to warn authorities of
her son's history of mental illness and severe depression.

Now Carol Covarrubias is considering filing a wrongful death lawsuit and
asking what the staff at the Richmond jail knew about her son Ryan's condition.

"At what point did they realize that he was depressed?" she said yesterday.
"At what point did they know he was despondent? There should have been
clues. We were trying to do what we could do on the outside."

Ryan Covarrubias had been housed at the Richmond jail since Jan. 11 after
being arrested on outstanding warrants for possessing marijuana for sale
and evading a police officer.

Authorities believe that he used a bedsheet to hang himself in his cell
sometime Wednesday afternoon -- two days after breaking down at a bail
hearing, where he learned he would have to pay $45,000 to get free.

"I don't think he could see any way out of this," Carol Covarrubias said,
adding that she never expected her son would take his own life. "He had a
great fear of going to prison. We could pay his bail, but I felt my son
needed time to sit there and think about this."

According to his mother, Ryan Covarrubias had been in and out of the
juvenile criminal justice system for nonviolent crimes. He spent time at
the Orin Allen Youth Rehabilitation Facility after stealing a car, she
said, and had been prescribed the drug Ritalin for a mental disorder.

But the teenager was not taking medication at the time of his incarceration
and apparently did not tell corrections officers that he was suffering
psychologically.

"His medical questionnaire that is asked of every inmate was negative in
all the areas we were concerned about," said Contra Costa Sheriff's Sgt.
Mark Hale. "And where it would have been normal to answer yes, he answered
yes."

Hale said the department was conducting a review of the case to make sure
that all proper procedures were followed.

Carol Covarrubias said a therapist had called repeatedly to try to get her
son transferred to the jail in Martinez, where he might have had access to
mental health counseling.

"He wasn't coming out of his cell. He wasn't socializing with anyone,"
Carol Covarrubias said.

Her son was apparently afraid he would be sentenced to a lengthy prison
term, despite advice from other inmates who said he should not be so concerned.

"We didn't know what he was facing. He was told at one point, he might be
sent to prison for a year, then it was five years. He was very, very scared
about being there," Carol Covarrubias said.