Jim Avila , a longtime correspondent for ABC News and NBC News whose coverage ranged from the White House to immigration to major trials in California and elsewhere, has died. He was 69.

Avila died after a long illness, Diane Macedo, anchor on ABC News Live, told viewers on Thursday. She said that he faced health challenges, having undergone a kidney transplant, donated by his brother.

Avila covered the White House from 2012 to 2016, a tenure in which he won the White House Correspondents’ Association’s Merriman Smith Memorial Award for breaking the news of the reopening of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba.

Avila joined the network in 2004, covering major trials, including those of Jerry Sandusky and Penn State, and Michael Jackson, as senior law and justice

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