A death inside the Harris County Jail is labeled a homicide. Alexis Cardenas died after getting into a fight with jailers. His family says it doesn’t add up.
HOUSTON — A death inside the Harris County jail was labeled a homicide according to the Harris County Medical Examiner, and now, family members of the man who died said he just needed help.
Alexis Cardenas got into a fight with jailers while he was being discharged in July.
His family said he had been asking for help when he went to jail, and they said that call for help backfired.
The autopsy found signs of drug use, but also physical and electric restraint, as contributing factors in his death.
Family members said that, knowing he was fighting to stay in jail, jailers should have known he needed some help.
Surveillance video from inside the Harris County Jail showed what happened July 8, the day 32-year-old Cardenas died in custody.
“The word around Houston is you go to Harris County (Jail) to die, basically, and that became true for us,” Alexis Cardenas’s cousin, Melissa Cardenas, said.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office released the video showing him as he was being released.
Instead of leaving, officials said he pushed his way back into a secure area and forced jailers to hold him and use a Taser on him.
But his family said there has to be more to the story.
“I don’t even have to rewatch it (the video) … I replay it in my head over and over again. It’s awful to see,” Melissa said.
The county jail released the surveillance video in August. On Tuesday, the medical examiner ruled Alexis’ death a homicide. Acute toxic effects of meth, cocaine, and more during physical and electric restraint were contributing factors in his death.
“This came to a shock to us. I mean, he’s an adult. We don’t know what he was doing, right? But to us, he was a regular man taking his kids to school,” Melissa said.
Family members said that before Alexis’ arrest for a 10-year-old traffic ticket, he’d actually gone up to an officer, saying he was scared and needed help. The family said that even after 30 hours in jail, he continued asking for help. And then, for him to fight to stay in jail, they said an alarm should have gone off.
“There are still a lot of unanswered questions as to why they won’t release the audio. I believe the audio is going to give us so much more,” Melissa said.
HCSO officials said they can’t comment since it’s an ongoing investigation.
The six jailers involved have been assigned new duties that don’t involve interaction with people held in the jail. The Texas Rangers have taken over the investigation.
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