Former Berkeley student known as "Naked Guy'' dies in jail

[AliceInWonderland]

Former Berkeley student known as ``Naked Guy'' dies in jail
Saturday May 20, 2006

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) The former University of California, Berkeley student known as the ``Naked Guy,'' who gained notoriety for attending class in the buff in the early 1990s, died of an apparent suicide while in jail, authorities said.

Andrew Martinez, 33, whose stripped-down campus strolls got him expelled from UC Berkeley and prompted the famously liberal city to adopt a strict anti-nudity ordinance, was found dead Thursday in the Santa Clara County Main Jail, said jail spokesman Mark Cursi.

Martinez was found under his bed covers with a plastic bag cinched around his head, Cursi said. Officials are investigating the death as an apparent suicide.

The 6-foot-4 Martinez had been in custody since Jan. 10 on three felony charges of battery and assault with a deadly weapon, authorities said.

Martinez was housed in solitary confinement in a maximum security area and was last seen alive around 11 p.m. Wednesday during a routine cell check, Cursi said.

He was found about 20 minutes later when other prisoners reported hearing unusual sounds from his cell. He was pronounced dead a short time later.

In 1992, Martinez organized a ``Nude-In'' protest at the university's Sproul Plaza. He said he was trying to make a point about free expression at the birthplace of the 1964 Free Speech Movement.

``What I am getting out here is there's a lot of social control going on here,'' he told the crowd at the nude-in.

The message caught on and nude spottings spiked on campus. Martinez, whose naked notoriety landed him on national television talk shows, was expelled the following year after the university rewrote its dress code to ban nudity.

Martinez also became the first person arrested under the Berkeley city ordinance, adopted in July 1993, after he and some of his supporters showed up at a City Hall meeting in the buff. He pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge and got two years of probation.


Information from: San Jose Mercury News, http://www.sjmercury.com
source: WWW.KCAL.COM

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
In the interest of timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain occasional typographical errors.

[Barbara]

Martinez had been in custody since Jan. 10 on three felony charges of battery and assault with a deadly weapon, authorities said.

I don't want to seem heartless, but why exactly should we feel sorry for the guy?

[LynnieD]

I thought this was about the guy in NYC Times Square, the Naked Cowboy or something. Sorry... Didn't know this guy. I guess I could read the titles of threads a bit more thoroughly and wouldn't get confused eh?

[FierceKiten]

I thought this was about the guy in NYC Times Square, the Naked Cowboy or something. Sorry... Didn't know this guy. I guess I could read the titles of threads a bit more thoroughly and wouldn't get confused eh?

I thought the same thing.

[Sojiita]

I remember this guy. He had a nice body and apparently a nice appendage as well..one of the reasons he wanted to go around naked so they said. Too bad. He seemed like an allright guy back then.

update:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Martinez

"After his days as the Naked Guy, Martinez spent the next decade bouncing among halfway houses, psychiatric institutions, occasional homelessness and jail, but never getting comprehensive treatment, his family said."[4]

On Jan. 10, 2006 he was arrested after a fight at a halfway house where he was living and charged with two counts of battery and one count of assault with a deadly weapon. He was in maximum-security custody in Santa Clara County Jail in San Jose.[5]

Poor guy. Sounds like he was very troubled and never got the help he needed.

[tictac]

I remember seeing this guy on a couple talk shows back in the 90's. He seemed like a normal, intelligent guy. Well, minus the whole naked thing.

Now the naked cowboy SHOULD get a plastic bag over the head.
No, not really, he's actually kinda funny, I saw him once in New Orleans.

[Wonderwoman]

How sad.

[lovely bones]

Poor guy. If only all of us were a tad crazier, then we could all run around naked too and it'd be OK except in the winter. Damn Eve and that apple.