Mom of murder suspect who committed suicide in Monterey County jail files suit

The mother of a Big Sur man who hanged himself in Monterey County Jail  after stabbing a cab driver to death filed a federal lawsuit Thursday, claiming her son's mental breakdown was ignored by mental health and law enforcement professionals in two counties, leading to the deaths of both men.

Silvia Guersenzvaig, mother of Joshua Claypole, says her son was suffering from an an acute bipolar episode when he stabbed cab driver Daniel Garcia Huerta to death on May 1, 2013. 

The 20-year-old Claypole was arrested just minutes after stabbing Huerta while in the parking lot of the Enterprise Rental Car lot in Monterey. He had hired Huerta to pick him up at a Wells Fargo Bank branch in Carmel Valley.

Claypole's attorney at the time, John Klpofenstein, says his request that jailers place Claypole on suicide watch was ignored. Claypole was found hanging in his cell on May 4 and taken to a trauma center in San Jose, where he was removed from life support on May 9 and died.

A note found in his cell read, "I love you mama. I'm sorry for all the pain I have brought you mama. I love you very much. Maybe I will see you again. Love, Joshua."

Guersenzvaig's attorney, Pasadena-based Dan Stormer, says his client is devastated on a number of levels.

"She's sad because she lost her son. She's sad because another person lost his life. She's crushed because she knows with proper intervention and treatment, her son would be alive and Mr. Huerta would be alive," Stormer says. 

Named in the suit filed about 3pm in the Northern District of U.S. District Court are the County of Monterey, Sheriff Scott Miller, Sheriff's Sgt. E. Kaye, the City of Monterey, Monterey Police Chief Phil Penko and Monterey Police Officer Brent Hall. Also named are jail medical provider California Forensic Medical Group and its founder and chief medical officer, Taylor Fithian.

Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula is also a defendant. Claypole, according to the suit, had visited CHOMP's behavioral health clinic in Monterey twice the day he killed Huerta, but was thrown out of the building by security officers who called Monterey police.  

Guersenzvaig says jail officials in San Mateo County released her son from custody following a DUI arrest just days before the killing despite his obvious agitated mental state, sending him to the cataclysmic encounter with Huerta. That county, along with San Mateo County Sheriff Greg Munks, are also named as defendants.

The mother also says she tried to visit her son and deliver his psychiatric medications in the hours before he hanged himself with a torn bedsheet, but was not allowed to see him or leave the medication.

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