Derrick Benavidez
Derrick Benavidez, 18, died on April 27, 2026, at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, where he had been held since being booked in March. Jail staff found him in medical distress in his cell and called for emergency help, and hospital staff from UNM Hospital pronounced him dead at 5:34 a.m. The Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office and the jail's Office of Professional Standards are investigating, and the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator will determine the cause and manner of death. The jail's release describes the death as a medical emergency, and the article gives no cause of death.
Cause of death, as reported: Cause not yet determined. The Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office and the jail's Office of Professional Standards are investigating, and the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator will determine the cause and manner of death; the jail described a medical emergency.
Reported by: Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office (the agency that held him); Metropolitan Detention Center (the agency that held him); New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator (medical examiner or coroner).