UPDATE NO. 2, DEC. 19, 5:32 P.M.: Lan Huu Pham, 39, was charged today with murdering his 49-year-old Theo Lacy Facility cellmate Thiep Truong
Nguyen, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
Nguyen, a Westminster salesman who was being held on warrants and an assault with a deadly weapon charges, was found unconscious inside the cell Tuesday night and died
from his injuries at a hospital on Wednesday. Sheriff's Lt. Jeff Hallock had previously said Nguyen had been in a physical altercation with his cellmate.
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City News Service reports Pham listed his occupation as a mechanic and has been in custody since Nov. 25, although it's unclear what for.
UPDATE NO. 1, DEC. 18, 10:32 A.M.: Thiep Truong Nguyen, the 49-year-old Westminster man beaten into unconsciousness by a fellow inmate at Theo Lacy Jail Tuesday, has died, according to the sheriff's department.
The county coroner's office reports Nguyen died at 1:45 p.m. Tuesday at UCI Medical Center in Orange.
Jail records indicate Nguyen was a salesman who had a court appearance scheduled Friday. He was in custody on charges of burglary and assault with a deadly weapon as well as warrants, according to sheriff's spokesman Lt. Jeff Hallock.
The name of the inmate accused of beating Nguyen is being withheld pending the outcome of the investigation, which is being conducted by the Orange County District
Attorney's Bureau of Investigations, Hallock said.
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ORIGINAL POST, DEC. 17, 8:25 A.M.: A 49-year-old inmate at Theo Lacy Jail was brutally beaten into the hospital Tuesday morning, but sheriff's jailers are apparently not to blame for this one.
Instead, the fellow got into a violent scrap with a younger, 39-year-old inmate just before noon, according to sheriff's Lt. Jeff Hallock, the department spokesman.
The pair had been housed together and following the fight, Orange County Jail medical staff and paramedics treated the unconscious older man before he was taken to a nearby hospital, where he is listed in extremely critical condition, Hallock said.
The fighters' identities are being withheld as a result of the ongoing investigation, which the sheriff's department has handed over to the Orange County District Attorney's office as per protocol.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.