YOUNGSTOWN Inmate dies in cell; natural causes likely

Another inmate said the man who died had suffered from diabetes.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Michael Warden's $50,000 bond on heroin charges kept him in the Mahoning County jail, where he died.
A coroner's investigator declared Warden, known as "Fat Mike" to his friends, dead at 5:44 p.m. Thursday. The 42-year-old East Lucius Avenue man, born in Brooklyn, N.Y., had been at the jail since Monday.
A Mahoning County grand jury had secretly indicted a woman and nine men, including Warden, on charges that include trafficking in heroin, heroin possession and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity. Police said the heroin ring operated between here and Brooklyn.
'Leg problems': At Warden's arraignment Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, Judge Maureen A. Cronin set bond at $50,000. The 290-pound man told the judge that he had "leg problems."
The jail had housed Warden in a medical cell because of stasis ulcers on his feet, said sheriff's department Maj. Michael Budd. Warden's last treatment for his condition took place Tuesday at Northside Medical Center, Budd said.
"He was a very heavy man and his feet would swell," Budd said today. "He was also being monitored for heroin withdrawal."
A detective's notes describe Warden as a "heavy-duty heroin user," Budd said. Miguel Caban Velasquez, also indicted with Warden, gave a statement to deputies that states Warden "had diabetes bad enough where he was in and out of St. Elizabeth's Hospital all the time." Velasquez, 44, of West Florida Avenue, is being held with bond set at $100,000.
What happened: Budd said a jail nurse checked on Warden at 3:15 p.m. Thursday and again at 3:56 p.m., when he didn't respond to her knock on the door. She alerted deputies when she found him not moving and called for an ambulance, which arrived at 4:02 p.m. The medical cell has a video monitor.
"It appears to be natural causes," Budd said of the death.
This is the second jail death in just over three months. Attempts to revive Joseph D. Morris on the way to the hospital failed died Dec. 26. He had sickle cell anemia.