Orange County Jails Records First COVID-19 Inmate Death
SANTA ANA (CBSLA) -- The Orange County Jail system has recorded its first inmate death due to complications from COVID-19.
Eddie Lee Anderson — a 68-year-old murder defendant from River Ridge, Louisiana — tested positive within the past week while he was at Theo Lacy branch jail. Anderson was taken to an area hospital on Dec. 13 and was pronounced dead early Friday morning.
Anderson last appeared in court for a pretrial hearing on Nov. 6 at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach. He was charged with the May 18, 1976, murder of Leslie Penrod Harris, who was raped and strangled.
The case was cold until last year, when new DNA technology led investigators to Anderson — a former Marine who had been assigned to the El Toro Marine base in the early 1970s, sheriff's investigators said.
As of Friday, 615 inmates in county jails were infected with COVID-19, including 35 from new bookings.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
