(L.A.) Destiny Ortega, 32, Died in Jail

Case Number: 2021-14209

Los Angeles County is reporting the death of a 32-year-old Hispanic female that occurred at the women’s jail in Lynwood.

The coroner’s office has identified the woman as Destiny Ortega.

Manner of Death: Homicide

Cause of Death: Blunt Force Trauma of the Head

RIP DESTINY ORTEGA (August 8, 1989 – December 29, 2021)

Formal pronouncement of death was made on Wednesday at 3:36 a.m.

A sheriff’s deputy conducting a security check found the decedent lying unresponsive on the floor in a pool of blood. Pomona police had arrested Ortega the day before on suspicion of a parole violation.

Ortega’s cellmate at the Century Regional Detention Facility, who was lying on her bunk in the two-person cell when the deputy found Ortega, refused to speak with investigators.

The Century Regional Detention Facility houses about 1,300 inmates on a given day. Overall, the county’s jail population typically is about 15,000 inmates, but recently has dropped to 12,600.

Deaths in the lockups have gone up in recent years, from 20 in 2016 to 32 in 2019, according to statistics released by the Sheriff’s Department.