Former ABC News senior correspondent Jim Avila has died at the age of 69 following a battle with a long illness, the network reported on Thursday (November 13), citing an internal email sent to staff by ABC News President Almin Karamehmedovic.
"Jim was a gifted journalist and a generous colleague," Karamehmedovic said.
Avila, who joined the network in 2004, also worked as a correspondent for 20/20, specializing in politics, justice, law and consumer investigations, before departing in 2021. The veteran journalist won the Merriman Award for his coverage of the reopened diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba during former President Barack Obama's administration and had covered a wide range of topics during his tenure.
"He won the prestigious Merriman Award from the White House Correspondents Association for breaking the news that the United States and Cuba had reopened diplomatic relations," Avila's official ABC News biography states. "As the Senior Law and Justice Correspondent, he has covered every major trial from Jerry Sandusky and Penn State to Michael Jackson, O.J. Simpson and countless others," the biography said. "He led reports on immigration, making several trips to the southern border to document stories of immigrants, and also covered the death of Freddie Gray and civil unrest in Baltimore."
Avila was a two-time National Emmy Awards and five-time Edward R. Murrow Awards winner and was named by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists as the Reporter of the Year in 1999, having later been named a 2019 Hall of Fame honoree. The veteran journalist had most recently worked as a senior investigative reporter for KGTV, an ABC News affiliate in San Diego.