The last inmate to share a cell with the late convicted sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein reportedly died after contracting the coronavirus last month.
Efrain Reyes, 51, was found dead in bed in his mother’s New York City apartment on Nov. 27, the New York City Police Department confirmed to the New York Daily News.
Reyes shared a cell with Epstein in August 2019 but was transferred to a different facility just a day before Epstein was found dead. Reyes pleaded guilty to a narcotics conspiracy involving crack and heroin at Bronx housing projects.
Reyes’s niece, 27-year-old Angelique Lopez, said Epstein was paired with her uncle because he had a disabled leg and was mild-mannered.
“[Epstein] liked to read a lot and he kept to himself,” Lopez said. “He wasn’t a problem starter or too loud. My uncle said he was a good cellmate.”
Lopez said Reyes also shared stories of how Epstein’s wealthy status made him a target among other inmates and correctional officers.
“They knew how much money he had. They said let’s push him around and extort him for money. They thought they could get his money,” Lopez said. “[Staff] were treating him like crap. They were making him sleep on the floor. They wouldn’t let him sleep on a cot.”
Epstein, who registered as a sex offender as part of a nonprosecution agreement more than a decade ago, was arrested in July 2019 on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges for allegedly abusing girls as young as 14. He was found dead at the age of 66 in his Manhattan prison cell in August 2019, which the New York City medical examiner determined to be a suicide.
The FBI questioned Reyes shortly after Epstein’s death, and asked him when Epstein was in his cell and if he seemed suicidal. Lopez said they also asked him if Epstein had given any indication that he would take his own life.
Reyes caught COVID-19 at the Queens private jail, a facility that had been overrun with cases early on in the pandemic.
The city’s medical examiner has not yet determined the cause of Reyes’s death, but Lopez says there’s no doubt the virus played a role in his health after leaving prison in April. Reyes suffered from heart problems and diabetes.
“I can’t say COVID didn’t play a part [in his death],” Lopez said. “He came back coughing more than normal. His lungs weren’t the same.”
