MONROE — The state Department of Corrections and Walla Walla police are investigating the death of an inmate from Monroe as an apparent suicide.
Oscar Garcia-Pacheco, 34, was four months into a 22-year sentence for murder when he was found in his cell Monday morning at the state penitentiary. He was housed alone in the cell.
Correctional officers found Garcia-Pacheco, 34, unresponsive around 6:40 a.m. Prison staff attempted life-saving measures but he was pronounced dead about 40 minutes later.
Garcia-Pacheco was sentenced to prison in September after pleading guilty to first-degree domestic violence murder.
In May 2013, Garcia-Pacheco stabbed his wife 19 times on a Monroe sidewalk as she tried to hand him a court document that ordered him to stay away. Jacoba Ramirez-Rodriguez wrote in Snohomish County Superior Court paperwork that her husband had been abusive for years. She described his escalating anger and past assaultive behavior. In her statement to the court, she explained that the couple was in the process of divorcing
They had dated for about eight years before marrying in 2007. They had lived in Monroe for more than a decade. Ramirez-Rodriguez wrote that her husband sometimes left her with bruises and black eyes. She didn’t report the abuse earlier because she “always thought he would change.”
Garcia-Pacheco had bought a knife set with the intention of killing his wife and then committing suicide. Police found him holding a knife to his own throat. He was shocked with a stun gun before his arrest.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com
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