Jim Avila, a trailblazing senior correspondent for ABC News known for his incisive coverage of White House politics, major trials, and immigration stories, has died after a long illness. He was 69.
ABC News Live anchor Diane Macedo broke the news on air Thursday, describing Avila's passing as a profound loss for the network and journalism community. ABC News President Almin Karamehmedovic confirmed the death in an internal memo, noting Avila succumbed on Wednesday following health challenges that included a kidney transplant donated by his brother in 2020.
Karamehmedovic praised Avila as a "gifted journalist and generous colleague" who faced his battles with courage, extending condolences to his three children—Jamie, Jenny, and Evan, the latter a journalist himself—and his family.
Jim Avila, an award-winning correspondent for ABC News, has died at the age of 70. He covered major stories from 9/11 to the wars in Iraq. David Muir reports. https://t.co/jp2EoWnEgQ pic.twitter.com/aNT9QPlbzV
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) November 14, 2025
Avila's career spanned nearly four decades, marked by high-stakes reporting under relentless deadlines. He joined ABC News in 2004 as a Los Angeles-based senior correspondent, specializing in politics, justice, law, and consumer investigations.
As Senior Law and Justice Correspondent, he covered landmark trials including those of O.J. Simpson, Michael Jackson, Jerry Sandusky, and the Penn State scandal. He also anchored World News Tonight Saturday and served as a 20/20 correspondent, delivering stories on immigration from the U.S. southern border and the unrest following Freddie Gray's death in Baltimore.
From 2012 to 2016, Avila reported from the White House, earning the White House Correspondents' Association's Merriman Smith Memorial Award for his exclusive scoop on the U.S. and Cuba reopening diplomatic relations—a moment he broke live on air.
His earlier work at NBC News, where he was a national correspondent for Nightly News, included on-the-ground reporting from Afghanistan and Iraq, coverage of the 9/11 attacks and D.C. sniper shootings, and anchoring at KNBC in Los Angeles. Avila filed a record 130 reports annually at NBC, the highest for any minority journalist in broadcast history at the time.