A Hawaii inmate who died in an Arizona prison has been identified

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

Motu (36) was serving 10 years in prison for robbery. He was found unconscious Monday evening in a solitary cell in the disciplinary unit of a private prison in Arizona.

He is the fourth inmate in Hawaii, Arizona to die this year. The state holds nearly 1,000 inmates at the privately owned Saguaro Prison because there is no room for them in Hawaii. There is a prison in Arizona Owned and operated by CoreCivicone of the largest prison operators in the country.

The Hawaii Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Saguaro staff found Motu unconscious in his cell at approximately 7:38 p.m., Saguaro staff said in a written statement.

Jail staff immediately performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation and called EMS and Eloy Police. The statement said Motu died around 8:14 p.m. and was subsequently taken 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 known suicide of an inmate held in Hawaii’s prison system since 2020. The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation rarely announces the cause of death for inmates who die in custody.

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