Jose Mena had a hunting rifle and told family members he was going to kill himself, according to Logan City police reports. After the gun was wrestled from him, he grabbed a knife and repeated the threats.
But according to records in a wrongful death suit in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, Cache County corrections officers did not know the details of why Mena had been arrested, and they said he expressed no suicidal ideation during the booking process that night of Sept. 3, 2016.
Seventeen days later, deputies found Mena unresponsive in his cell, a suicide by hanging.