Skyler Chapman is charged with criminally negligent homicide in the Sept. 10, 2024, death of jail inmate Saul Vargas.
GALVESTON, Texas — A former jailer at the Galveston County Jail has been charged in the 2024 death of an inmate.
Sklyer Ray Chapman was indicted by a grand jury on Tuesday on a charge of criminally negligent homicide.
He was one of the jailers who got into an altercation with inmate Saul Vargas on Sept. 10, 2024, while he was being moved to an isolation cell. They used a Taser to subdue him.
Then Sheriff Henry Trochesset said Vargas was later found unresponsive in his cell and pronounced dead.
A few days later, the inmate’s widow and other family members called for an investigation at a news conference with activist Quannel X.
The Texas Rangers and the Galveston County District Attorney’s Office investigated the case.
Chapman was terminated by incoming Sheriff Jimmy Fullen in January.
On Tuesday, Chapman surrendered at the Galveston County Jail, where he once worked, and was released after posting a $20,000 bond.
“Our office will prosecute this case vigorously. We will seek the earliest possible trial date that fairness and due process allow,” DA Jack Roady said on Wednesday.
If convicted of criminally negligent homicide, he could face up to two years in prison.