27-Year-Old Evatt Joli Hernandez Is Shot to Death After “Welfare Check”

The Brewster County Sheriff’s Department, in Alpine, Texas, filed a custodial death report regarding the death of Evatt Joli Hernandez. Ms. Hernandez was only 27 years old at the time of her death. We provide information in this post obtained from that report, and we make no allegation of any wrongdoing against anyone.

Our Texas civil rights law firm reviews custodial death reports, filed with the Attorney General of Texas, on a weekly basis. Thus, we have become very familiar with the manner in which various law enforcement agencies throughout Texas complete those reports. The report regarding Ms. Hernandez’s death was, compared to other reports reviewed by our firm, extremely sparse. The summary portion of the report regarding Ms. Hernandez’s death, which would normally describe what occurred, reads in its entirety, “The Incident still under investigation by the Texas Rangers.” Thus, the summary portion of the report provides absolutely no information to the public or potentially Ms. Hernandez’s family as to what led to her death.

Moreover, in response to the following fields, the Brewster County Sheriff’s Department provided no information: Death Code; Manner of Death Description; Custody Code; Code of Charges; Intoxicated; and Medical Treatment Description. The report does indicate that Ms. Hernandez died as a result of a pre-custodial use of force, occurring at or about 8:26 p.m. on December 9, 2020.

Written By: Dean Malone

Dean Malone

Dean Malone is the founder of Law Offices of Dean Malone, P.C., a jail neglect civil rights law firm. Mr. Malone earned his bachelor's degree at the University of Texas at Dallas, graduating summa cum laude with a 4.0 GPA, and from Baylor University School of Law with a general civil litigation concentration. Mr. Malone served in several staff positions for the Baylor Law Review, including executive editor. Mr. Malone is an experienced trial lawyer, trying a number of cases to jury verdict and also handling arbitrations through final hearing. He heads the jail neglect section of his law firm, in which lawyers litigate cases involving serious injury and death resulting from jail neglect and abuse. Lawyers frequently refer cases to Mr. Malone due to his focus on this very complicated civil rights practice area.