Hawaii inmate who died in Arizona prison is identified

A Hawaii prison inmate who apparently hanged himself this week at Saguaro Correctional Center has been identified by the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation as Soosoo Motu.

Motu, 36, was serving a 10-year prison sentence for theft. He was found unconscious Monday evening in a single cell of a disciplinary unit at the private Arizona prison.

He is the fourth Hawaiian inmate in Arizona to die this year. The state is holding nearly 1,000 inmates at the privately owned Saguaro prison because facilities in Hawaii have no room for them. The Arizona prison does owned and operated by CoreCivicone of the largest prison operators in the country.

The Hawaii Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a written statement that Saguaro staff found Motu unconscious in his cell at around 7:38 pm on Monday.

Jail staff immediately performed CPR and called emergency medical services and Eloy police. According to the statement, Motu was pronounced dead around 8:14 p.m. before being removed from the facility.

The official cause of death is pending determination by the Arizona medical examiner’s office.

If Motu’s death is confirmed as a suicide, it would be the 11th suicide of an inmate held in Hawaii’s prison system since 2020. The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation rarely releases a cause of death for inmates who die in custody.

The Eloy Police Department and the Hawaii Department of Law Enforcement are investigating the death.