A southern California man who was facing murder charges for the deaths of six people died after consuming Ajax in his holding cell on Friday.
25-year-old Itzcoatl Ocampo appeared to have quietly collected the cleaning product while in police custody, according to the Associated Press. Ocampo's attorney Michael Molfetta, who spoke to the press after the accused murderer's death, said that he questioned how Orange County guards at the jail took care of Ocampo, who reportedly was mentally unstable.
"If you spend three minutes with Ocampo, you are acutely aware of the fact that he has some mental issues," Molfetta told AP. "They were severe and they were obvious and they definitely were not contrived. With that being said, this was a guy who should have garnered the highest level of scrutiny...and it wasn't done."
The suspected murderer, who served in the past as a Marine, was discovered in his cell on Wednesday shaking and throwing up. He was rushed to a medical facility nearby, and was confirmed dead the next day, according to Orange County sheriff's Lt. Jef Hallock.
Although an autopsy has not yet revealed the cause of death, Hallock said that it wouldn't surprise him if staff administered the cleaning products to inmates for their cells.
"It would not be out of the ordinary for an inmate to be provided with a small amount of powdery cleaning product," he said. "It would be typically enough for one cleaning."
Mexico-born Ocampo was to attend trial for allegedly stabbing and killing four homeless men, in late 2011 and 2012. According to AP, Ocampo sought out homeless people to harm because he regarded them as vagabonds, and detriments to society.
Three of his victims had been stabbed more than 40 times, with a knife estimated to have at least a 7 inch-long blade.
Ocampo was put on suicide watch last March, after he started clobbering his own head against a metal toilet in his cell. When attorneys asked him about the incident, he said he was attempting to shut out voices, headaches and twitches that were pestering him.
