A California man accused of killing his former boss died by suicide in a Philly jail
Paul Warren, who was from Philadelphia and still has family in the area, was being held at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Northeast Philadelphia pending extradition.
A California man who was wanted for the high-profile murder of his former work supervisor was arrested in Philadelphia on Dec. 9 — and died on Saturday after hanging himself in a Philadelphia jail cell, according to internal records obtained by The Inquirer.
Paul Alexander Warren, 58, was accused of the fatal stabbing of Joshua Watson, a 43-year-old father of two, on Nov. 25. According to local news reports, Watson had been Warren’s supervisor at the Veterans Affairs Loma Linda Health Care campus, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles.
Warren, who was from Philadelphia and still has family in the area, was being held at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Northeast Philadelphia pending extradition.
He was found in his cell at 8 a.m. on Thursday, records show, when a lieutenant responded and attempted to revive him.
A Philadelphia Department of Prisons spokesperson confirmed that a prisoner was transported to Jefferson Torresdale Hospital on Thursday, and pronounced dead Saturday.
The department has been subject to monitoring by a federal judge, and the city has been forced to pay $25 million, due to understaffing that has at times left units unmanned and prisoners locked down for days on end. The jails have in recent months made headlines for drug-related deaths, stabbings, and the arrests of corrections officers for smuggling contraband.
In this case, though, the spokesperson said that a nurse and correctional officer had interacted with Warren “only a few minutes” before he carried out the suicide. “It appears that all protocols were followed,” the spokesperson said.
As Warren was being rushed to the hospital, City Council was passing legislation to put forward a ballot measure creating an independent oversight board aimed at monitoring the chaotic jail conditions.
Warren’s family members declined to comment on Sunday.
According to the Orange County Register, Warren was a Navy veteran who had worked in the inventory department at the veterans hospital campus for nearly a decade.
The newspaper reported that Warren had told a coworker of a conflict with his supervisor, Watson, over a request for medical leave in the months before Watson was killed with a knife at his home.