Jim Avila, a former ABC News correspondent who covered several major trials in a career that spanned decades, died on Wednesday at his home in San Diego. He was 70.
His death was announced in a statement by ABC News, which said he died after a long illness.
Mr. Avila joined ABC News in 2004, and as a national correspondent with a focus on law and justice he covered high-profile court cases, including Jerry Sandusky’s sexual-abuse case at Penn State and the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson’s physician who was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
He gained a reputation as a dogged and versatile reporter, one just as able to grill a sitting president as he was to cover a hot-button investigation, at a time with few Hispanic on-camera reporters in network television.
Mr. Avila was also a White House reporter for the network during President Barack Obama’s second term, covering the reopening of diplomatic relations with Cuba, as well as a correspondent for “20/20,” ABC’s newsmagazine show.
Before joining ABC News, Mr. Avila was a national correspondent at NBC News from 2000 to 2004, where he covered the Sept. 11 attacks and the subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This followed stints at KNBC Los Angeles, where he covered the O.J. Simpson trial, and other stops at Chicago television stations. His career plaudits include two National Emmy Awards and five Edward R. Murrow Awards.
Mr. Avila was also at the center of a notable defamation lawsuit brought by a meat-processing company in South Dakota. In a series of 2012 reports for ABC, he questioned the safety of processed beef trimmings that were once popular in ground beef, and repeatedly referred to the product as “pink slime.”
The company, Beef Products Inc., sued for defamation, seeking $1.9 billion in damages. The Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC News, settled for at least $177 million, despite the network standing by the report.
“I wish they had had the chance to hear my side of the story,” Mr. Avila said, according to The Sioux City Journal, referring to jurors in the trial after the settlement was announced. “It’s important to note we’re not retracting anything or apologizing for anything.”
A native of Los Angeles, James Joseph Simon was born on July 26, 1955, and was a member of an accomplished family of journalists. He was the son of Jim Simon, a talk radio pioneer who died in 1995, and Eve Avila. In changing his name, Mr. Simon said he wanted to lean into his Mexican heritage.
“I decided to take my mother’s maiden name out of pride for the Hispanic people,” Mr. Avila said in a speech at St. Philip’s College in 2015, as recounted by The Junior Ranger, the student newspaper at San Antonio College.
A graduate of Glenbard East High School in Lombard, Ill., outside Chicago, his career began at KCBS Radio in San Francisco. Three of his brothers also worked in broadcast journalism: Tom Simon, Jaie Avila and Christopher Simon, who died in 2020.
In the spring of 2018, Jaie saved his brother’s life. Mr. Avila was badly in need of a kidney transplant, and Jaie was a match. In an interview with Adweek after the surgery, Mr. Avila said that without the transplant, he was “just a week or so from being put in the hospice.”
“The surgery for me was also quite an ordeal,” he told Adweek. “But overall, when it’s all said and done, of course it was worth it. I have a future. I didn’t think I did.”
Mr. Avila’s survivors include his children, Evan Simon (also a journalist), James Simon and Jeannette Simon; his two brothers; and his sister, Karie Simon.
In the 2015 speech, Mr. Avila recalled becoming interested in journalism as a result of the Watergate scandal, which brought down Richard Nixon.
“They confronted him with words and questions, and he went down,” Mr. Avila said. “That is powerful stuff and it made me want to be a journalist.”
He left ABC News in 2021. Within two years, he went back to local news as a senior investigative reporter for KGTV in San Diego.
“I didn’t want to go back to local news just to cover the latest murder and fire,” Mr. Avila told The Times of San Diego. “I’ve been to every state in the country and every continent except Antarctica. I’ve covered the White House, wars, mass shootings. I still want to make an impact in news, and San Diego is a good place to do it.”
Georgia Gee contributed research.
Sopan Deb is a Times reporter covering breaking news and culture.
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