Outsourced inmate dies in Limestone County
Editor’s note: Daily Record inquiries to the Hays County Sheriff’s Office and Hays County regarding this incident were not answered by press time.The Texas Rangers did confirm their part in the investigation. The Mexia News is a sister paper, also owned by Moser Community Media.
Limestone County Sheriff Dennis Wilson said Monday it may take weeks before authorities know the cause of death of a 20-year-old inmate at the Limestone County Detention Center, but he is certain it is a medical incident.
The Texas Rangers were asked to investigate the death, a requirement of the newly implemented Sandra Bland Act, Wilson noted.
The inmate was being housed for Hays County and was in the day room at the prison mid-afternoon on Thursday, Nov. 8, when he had what appeared to be a medical incident. The inmates he was with alerted the guards, who were there very quickly, Wilson said.
The inmate was transported to the nearby Limestone Medical Center and died there. His body was sent for autopsy to Southwest Institute of Forensic Sciences, which is part of the Dallas County Medical Examiners Office.
“As a rule, they normally can tell you a preliminary,” Wilson said, “but as far as a complete autopsy, a toxicology takes 10, 12 or 14 weeks before you get all the testing back. Sometimes they will and sometimes they won’t, depending on what the cause of death is.
“I’m 100 percent sure it was some kind of medical issue that was going on with the inmate at the time of death,” he said.
The day room is an area where the inmates can watch TV, read or do other activities outside their cells. The whole area is videotaped, so Wilson is convinced nothing untoward happened before the inmate fell ill.
“In fact it was the other inmates who went to his aid and also alerted the guards that there was a crisis going on,” Wilson said. “By the time the inmate collapsed to the time the staff got to him, it was just a matter of minutes. It was a medical incident is what it is. I can’t go into detail because that’s part of the investigation, but there was not anything in his book-in that identified him as having any major medical issues.”
At the time of the incident, Wilson was returning to Limestone County from a peace officer’s funeral in Hempstead.
“The preliminary ruling normally would be in seven to 10 days, but as far as the actual official sign-off by the Medical Examiner’s Office, it takes weeks for the toxicology and medical tests of tissue, blood and all that stuff,” he said. “The toxicology, which is all lab work, is a long, tedious process and takes weeks. Then the doctor reviews the autopsy report; then they make a medical decision on what the cause of death was.”
Wilson said the last death at the LCDC was a Hays County inmate who took his own life several years ago.
The LCDC is owned by the county but run by LaSalle Corrections. The number of inmates has been averaging about 275.
