Bayside man dies at Rikers Island
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For the eighth time this year, a detainee in the custody of the New York City Department of Correction has died. Eagle file photo by Jacob Kaye
By Jacob Kaye
For the eighth time this year, a person being held in the custody of the New York City Department of Correction has died.
Donny Ubiera, a 33-year-old Bayside man being held on Rikers Island on attempted murder charges stemming from an attack in Queens, was found unresponsive inside the cell he was being held in early Tuesday morning, according to the DOC.
The agency said staffers found Ubiera, who was being held in a mental health observation unit in Rikers’ George R. Vierno Center, around 5:15 a.m., and gave him “immediate medical care.” He was pronounced dead around 5:50 a.m.
The embattled agency that has seen over two dozen detainees die in the past year and eight months did not divulge any additional details about Ubiera’s death.
A spokesperson for the DOC, which this year ended its practice of notifying the media of in-custody deaths, said that Ubiera’s death had been reported to the federal monitor, the state attorney general, the Department of Investigation, the Board of Correction, the State Commission of Correction and the Office of Chief Medical Examiner.
Ubiera’s cause of death has yet to be determined and is currently under investigation.
The detainee’s death comes as the DOC faces the prospect of having its control over Rikers Island stripped away and given to a court-appointed receiver. Earlier this month, federal Judge Laura Swain said that she believed the conditions inside Rikers Island were “tragic” and “unacceptable,” charges DOC Commissioner Louis Molina and Mayor Eric Adams have vehemently denied.
Ubiera on Tuesday became the eighth detainee to die this year, the 27th person to die since Mayor Eric Adams first took office and the 43rd person to die since the start of 2021, the year the DOC’s death toll began to increase dramatically.
Ubiera entered Rikers Island on March 29. The 33-year-old made headlines in 2022 after allegedly committing a series of assaults in the World’s Borough, including several that occurred days after he was arrested and released by a judge without bail.
The first of the three attacks came on Wednesday, June 8, 2022, when the Bayside man allegedly approached a victim outside of a Corona bakery on Warren Street and Roosevelt Avenue around 10:45 a.m. Holding both a board with a nail protruding from it and a rock, Ubiera told the man to fight him, prosecutors said. The victim attempted to run away, moving behind the counter of the bakery, but Ubiera allegedly reached over and hit him on the head with the board, according to the charges.
Later that same day, he was arrested after allegedly threatening several police officers with a knife. He was released on his own recognizance after the initial arrest.
Two days later, around 8:40 a.m., Ubiera allegedly stood over a man who was waiting for a train at the Queens Plaza subway station and took out a knife and began to swing it at the man, who sustained cuts and slash wounds to his hands and face, prosecutors said. The man was taken to a nearby hospital and treated with thirty-six stitches to close the wounds.
The next day, on June 11, Ubiera approached around five people waiting for a train at the 74th Street-Roosevelt Avenue subway station around 7:15 a.m., according to prosecutors. Without provocation, he allegedly stabbed one of the men from behind in his neck. The wound required two surgeries.
Ubiera was then arrested and detained on Rikers Island while undergoing regular mental health screenings.
MTA CEO Janno Lieber celebrated Ubiera’s detention on Rikers Island in June of last year.
"Sanity prevailed when a judge decided today to detain a defendant accused of multiple attacks on subway passengers," Lieber said last year. "It is not acceptable that someone who's a clear danger could threaten a police officer with a knife one day and be put back on the street by the justice system the next day to stab others as happened here.”
Ubiera had yet to stand trial for the charges against him at the time of his death.
The Legal Aid Society, whose attorneys were representing Ubiera, condemned the DOC for their client’s death and called on the agency to be transparent about the incident – the agency has been accused by federal monitor Steve J. Martin and others of failing to quickly and accurately report the details of serious and fatal incidents within the jail complex.
“Mr. Ubiera’s family deserves immediate answers from DOC and jail medical staff on the circumstances that led to his death,” the Legal Aid Society said in a statement. “All too often, our client’s loved ones are deprived of even the most basic information following the passing of a relative.”
“We call for a sweeping investigation and on DOC to inform the family and counsel of any findings at each step in the process,” they added.
The public defense firm also called for “close scrutiny” to be “paid to whether correctional staff and supervisors were actively engaged in supervising the housing area and conducting required tours” – the monitor has reported that several deadly incidents have come after correctional officers and staff have failed to tour and be present in housing units.
“We await an immediate response from DOC on this tragic passing,” the Legal Aid Society said.
DOC saw a spate of detainee deaths last month, with four men dying in as many weeks.
On Sunday, July 23, 44-year-old Curtis Davis was found unresponsive inside a cell inside the George R. Vierno Center.
The week prior, 47-year-old William Johnstone was found unresponsive in the cell he was being held in on Rikers Island. After reportedly being given several doses of Narcan and EpiPen, Johnstone was pronounced dead.
On July 6, 60-year-old Rickey Howell died of a terminal illness while in DOC custody and while being held at Bellevue Hospital. Howell, who was sent to Rikers in September 2022, entered DOC custody after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, despite protest from his attorneys.
Just two days before Howell’s death on July 4, 40-year-old Felix Taveras died after experiencing a “medical condition,” while he was detained at the Anna M. Kross Correctional Facility on Rikers Island.
Though Taveras’ death remains under investigation, the Daily News reported at the time that Taveras was believed to have died of an overdose. After complaining of chest pain, Taveras was taken to a medical facility on the island where he experienced a seizure and was given Narcan, according to the outlet.
Like in Davis’ death, several DOC officers were suspended in relation to Taveras’ death.
Rikers Island’s troubling death rate was one of a number of factors mentioned by Swain earlier this month when she took the extraordinary step in allowing attorneys with the Legal Aid Society and the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to pursue a federal receivership in an ongoing civil rights case known as Nunez v. the City of New York.
After hearing testimony from the federal monitoring team, the public defense firm and federal prosecutors, Swain said that while she believed “some progress is being made, it's not being made at a rate that is commensurate with the perils that are being presented.”
“The people incarcerated at Rikers are at a grave risk of immediate harm,” the judge said.
The installation of a receiver and what their authority may look like will likely not be known until the late winter or early spring of next year.
The parties will meet in the coming weeks and attempt to reach an agreement outside of court – a possibility even Swain suggested was slim during the Aug. 10 conference in the case – before Sept. 11.
Should they not reach an agreement, Swain ordered the Legal Aid Society to submit its opening briefs on the contempt and receivership charge by Nov. 17. The city will have until Jan. 16, 2024 to submit its response and the plaintiffs will have until Feb. 15, 2024 to reply to the city.
At that point, Swain will consider and make a decision on the motion.
The next appearance in the case will take place on Nov. 28.
