Attorney: Suspect in Monterey Cabbie Killing On Life Support Following Suicide Attempt

An attorney for the Big Sur man accused of stabbing a cab driver to death last week and who hanged himself Saturday in Monterey County Jail says his client may be brain dead and likely will be removed from life support in the coming days.

John Klopfenstein, who represents 20-year-old Josh Kannon Claypole, says he spoke to Claypole's mother from the San Jose hospital where Claypole was life-flighted after jail guards found him hanging in his cell on Saturday afternoon.

"She has informed me he arrived at the hospital without a pulse and that for all intents and purposes, he was dead, but they revived him and got a pulse," Klopfenstein says. "He is on a machine to keep him breathing and they're waiting for his father to arrive from Argentina. They will make a decision when his father arrives, but more than likely it will be that they remove him from the machines. He is unlikely to ever come out of the coma."

While Klopfenstein backed off slightly on his earlier statement that his client was definitely brain dead, he says doctors told Claypole's mother that "if by some miracle he did wake up, he would be profoundly brain-damaged and handicapped for the rest of his life."

Claypole's father is due to arrive from Argentina tomorrow. Claypole's mother, Silvia Guersenvaig, a long-time instructor and massage therapist at the Esalen Institute, is at her son's bedside.

Claypole is being guarded by two Monterey County Sheriff's Deputies. Klopfenstein says he visited his client briefly Sunday afternoon.

Klopfenstein says he asked that his client be placed on suicide watch the day of his arrest, and it was his understanding jailers were complying with that request. He since learned, though, that Claypole's mental state was evaluated by jail medical provider California Forensic Medical Group and Claypole was cleared to go into the jail's general population. He was being held in a single cell because of the case's notoriety, but was not receiving any increased monitoring.

Guersenvaig, according to the attorney, took her son's prescribed psychiatric medication, the name of which Klopfenstein was not immediately able to provide, to the jail on Saturday afternoon. He says she was told by a nurse there they would give her son the medication as quickly as possible.

That was at 1:30pm. Claypole was found hanged an hour later.

"I think this is a clear case of negligence on the part of the jail," Klopfenstein says.

According to public statements made by at least one sheriff's official, Claypole was not on suicide watch. Cmdr. Jose Mendoza told The Monterey County Herald Claypole had not been placed on that high-level of monitoring. Claypole was found hanging from torn bedding tied to a vent in his single cell about 2:30pm Saturday, and Mendoza said he didn't know when Claypole had last been checked.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Terry Spitz tells the The Weekly that D.A. investigators are at the San Jose hospital where Claypole was life-flighted following the suicide attempt, but he had no immediate word on the defendant's condition.

"It is my understanding that our investigators are at a San Jose hospital to determine what Mr. Claypole's condition is," Spitz says. "The D.A.'s office assigned two investigators Saturday at the request of the Sheriff's office to review this incident. I know they have interviewed witnesses. One important witness is not available until tomorrow."

Claypole was charged last week with murder and car-jacking in connection with the death of 44-year-old cabdriver Daniel Huerta. Huerta, a father of two girls and a driver for the Yellow Cab Co., picked up Claypole as a fare from the Wells Fargo Bank in Carmel Valley last Wednesday. Sometime during the cab ride to Monterey, Claypole allegedly repeatedly stabbed Huerta, who died on the ground of the Enterprise Car Rental parking lot on Del Monte Avenue. Claypole then allegedly car-jacked an employee of the nearby McDonald's corporate office at knife-point; police stopped him a short time later in Seaside and arrested him.

A memorial service was being held in Salinas today for Huerta, with burial to take place at a later date in his native Guanajuato. Huerta's niece told the Weekly outside the courtroom where Claypole was arraigned Friday that her uncle was a simple man who enjoyed spending time with his family and barbecuing on the weekends.

The driver came to California in 1987 and started work as a farm worker. He had been a cab driver for 12 years and told family he preferred driving in Monterey because he thought it was safer than Salinas.

"I think he just embraced life," 25-year-old Jacqueline Huerta said. "He didn't have much, but he was happy for what he had to provide for his family."

Claypole has been described as once a smart and fun-loving kid whose life turned when he fell into heavy drug use in Big Sur.