Chicago: An Indian-origin woman, who was being held at a Chicago jail for allegedly failing to show up for jury duty, has died in custody after a 15-day hunger strike.
52-year-old Lyvita Gomes, a former airline trainer for Delta Airlines, died in Lake County jail on January 3, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Funeral arrangements for Gomes, which have now been fixed, were earlier delayed until her relatives arrived from the United Kingdom this weekend, Alfredo Miranda, owner of Miranda Funeral Services, was quoted as saying.
Gomes, a native of Goa, was held after she ignored a jury summons last summer.
As a non-citizen, she was not even eligible to serve on a jury, but ignoring the summons started a chain of events that brought her to the Lake County Jail in December. She was charged with resisting arrest in October after a deputy showed up at her door as ordered by a judge so that she could explain her absence.
Federal immigration officials said Gomes got a US visa in 2004, and her friends said she moved to Atlanta to work at Delta headquarters. But there, one former co-worker said, she began to show signs of mental instability. Gomes, who lived in a Vernon Hills Hotel for the last two years, did not show up for two more court hearings, and once again a judge ordered her arrest. (PTI)