Former boxing champion Edwin Valero, who gained fame for knocking out all his 27 opponents and having a tattoo of Hugo Chavez on his chest, was found dead in his jail cell Monday and police said he hanged himself after being arrested in his wife's murder.
The former lightweight champion used his own clothes to hang himself from a bar in his cell early Monday, Venezuelan Federal Police Chief Wilmer Flores told reporters. Valero's lawyer, Milda Mora, confirmed that Valero had committed suicide saying he used the sweat pants he was wearing.
Flores said Valero was found by another inmate, who alerted authorities in the police lockup in north-central Carabobo state. Valero still showed signs of life when they took him down, but they were unable to save him and he died about 1:30 a.m., Flores said.
The 28-year-old was detained Sunday on suspicion of stabbing his wife to death. Prosecutors said Sunday night that they had planned to charge Valero in the killing. Valero was detained after police found the body of his 24-year-old wife in a hotel in Valencia. The boxer left the hotel room and allegedly told security he had killed Jennifer Carolina Viera, Flores said.
LUGE
Federation: Dead racer at fault
The international luge federation blamed the death of Georgian racer Nodar Kumaritashvili on his driving mistakes, saying a "complex series of interrelated events" led to the fatal crash during a training run at the Vancouver Olympics.
"Nodar did commit driving errors starting in curve 15-16, which as an accumulation ended in the impact that resulted in him leaving the track and subsequently hitting a post," the federation said in a report Monday, adding that "blunt force trauma to the base of his skull" caused the fatality.
The federation said that the wall on the left side of the finishing curve of the Whistler track "was deemed to have been correctly calculated and constructed to handle a crash in this area and to prevent the departure from the track by an athlete [under normal crash situations]."
