Starr County, jailers sued over inmate’s death in 2020

Alberto Peña

Two Starr county jailers were sued Friday for their alleged involvement in the death of an inmate in 2020.

Alberto Peña, 30, was arrested Aug. 13, 2020 at 3:31 p.m. and died later that evening in the Starr County jail at around 9 p.m.

Peña was arrested on a charge of criminal mischief after causing damage in excess of $100 but less than $750 at his parent’s house. His father called police to report his son was under the influence of drugs, according to the probable cause affidavit.

Martina and Aristedes Peña, Peña’s parents, filed a civil complaint against the county and the jailers, Evelario Garza and Ubaldo Suarez, before the U.S. Southern District Court of Texas on Friday for the wrongful death of their son.

Attorneys representing the parents contend his death was preventable if the jailers would’ve carried out sufficient, state-required monitoring and provided medical attention, especially after Peña complained he was unable to breathe.

Upon his arrest, jailers took Peña to a detox holding cell when jailers noted he was acting aggressively even hitting his head against the cell door, according to the custodial death report filed by the Starr County Sheriff’s Office with the Texas Attorney General.

After jailers unsuccessfully tried calming him down, Peña was placed in restraints that bound his arms and legs along with a “heavy strap” around his chest before he was sat on a mobile cart. Jailers rolled the cart and placed it directly under the camera’s view of the solitary detox cell, according to the lawsuit.

The custodial death report stated, “While Alberto is in the wrap he is constantly fighting the Wrap system and at 7:50 p.m. he manages to get himself out of the roll cart and makes his way to the cell door to kick it.”

Peña is then again placed in the restraints and asked to calm down, according to the sheriff’s office.

At the time of his arrest, Peña’s cousin, Edgar Peña, was also detained at the jail and held close to the intake area where he could hear the audio from the camera monitoring the detox cell.

Around 8:30 p.m., “Edgar could hear a person yelling and screaming asking for his daddy and mommy and stating loudly that he could not breathe,” according to the complaint.

By then, Evelario Garza, then shift sergeant, and Ubaldo Suarez, a jailer under Garza’s charge, had just clocked in at 8 p.m.

When Edgar realized it was his cousin, whom he knew had mental health problems, he got Garza’s attention and convinced him to allow Edgar to get close enough to calm his cousin down.

Garza, Suarez and some other guards took Edgar to Alberto’s cell. Edgar noticed his cousin’s face was purple from struggling to breathe and pointed it out to the jailers who were standing next to Edgar.

Edgar said he heard Alberto saying, “I can’t breathe. Momma, Daddy, help me!” Alberto asked his cousin for help, too.

Edgar asked Garza to loosen the strap across Alberto’s chest.

“There is no way those straps are cutting off his circulation,” Garza replied, according to the civil complaint. “I am going to leave him there for at least another 15 minutes until he calms down and then I will untie him.”

No medical attention was provided and Edgar was escorted back to his cell.

In the custodial death report, the sheriff’s office stated, “Alberto made no outcry or notified the jail staff of any medical distress or trouble breathing.”

The last cell check was at 8:53 p.m. A review of the detox cell camera shows he stopped moving at 9:01 p.m., according to the custodial death report.

At 9:12 p.m. the jailer noticed Peña was not moving and requested backup. CPR was performed while emergency personnel were called and arrived within minutes.

By then, Edgar was coming out of the shower and heard the commotion when he saw officers, not jailers, running down the hall.

Edgar asked Suarez what was happening. “Oh, your cousin is sick with COVID and we are going to take him to the hospital,” Suarez responded, according to the complaint. However, a test at the hospital turned out negative.

“Jail staff immediately remove Alberto from the roll cart and the wrap and start emergency first aid CPR. EMS and Fire respond to the jail within minutes and Alberto Peña is transported to the hospital where he is pronounced dead at 10:07 p.m. by the attending doctor,” the custodial death report stated.

Later that night, around 10:30 p.m. Edgar asked Suarez for an update and was told his cousin had a drug overdose, a different reason than the initial COVID suspicion, noted the attorneys representing Alberto Peña’s parents.

The doctor who pronounced him dead told authorities that a preliminary autopsy showed the man had cocaine, marijuana and alcohol in his system. The custodial death report filed with the Texas Attorney General’s office stated the cause of death as “cardio respiratory arrest while under the influence of mixed drugs and the manner of death as accidental with pending toxicology.”

Attorneys for Peña’s parents drew parallels between their son’s death and that of another inmate, Marco Muñoz, who died by suicide in that same cell two years before in 2018.

Muñoz’s death highlighted a problem of noncompliance with the Texas Commission on Jail Standards by the sheriff’s office, attorneys contended. “This was a practice that Sheriff Fuentes did not change following the death of Mr. Munoz and the non-compliance report from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards,” referring to two reports, one from May 2018 and another from Sept. 2020, that highlighted the sheriff’s office failed to provide adequate monitoring.

Attorneys for the Peñas requested a jury trial and to recover damages related to their son’s death.

The county and both jailers were notified of the lawsuit against them on Friday.

Attorneys for the defendants have not yet submitted a response in federal court to the claims made by Peña’s parents.