On October 19, 2022, the Nueces County Sheriff’s Office and Sheriff John Hooper filed a report about the September 14, 2022, death of Nueces County Jail inmate Juan Carlos Cantu. Mr. Cantu, age 36, had been incarcerated in the Corpus Christi jail for only a week when he was found unresponsive in his cell, transported to a Corpus Christi hospital, and pronounced deceased.

Nueces County Jail is Allegedly Non-Compliant

In addition to failing the June 2022 jail inspection, Nueces County Jail was found non-compliant in June 2021 and also in March 2017. The June 2021 inspection was conducted days after a custodial death. The safety of inmates is among the considerations when the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) is establishing minimum jail standards for county and municipal jails in the state. Inmates have sometimes allegedly died as a direct result of a jail’s failure to comply with minimum requirements, though there is not always a connection found between a custodial death and non-compliance with jail standards.

Eddie Garcia Commits Suicide in Nueces County Jail

On June 10, 2021, 29-year-old Eddie Garcia was booked into Nueces County Jail at 745 North Padre Island Drive in Corpus Christi, Texas 78406. Tragically, Mr. Garcia died on June 12, 2022, as a result of suicide. His means of death was hanging, or strangulation. He secured a sheet to a shelf and used it as a ligature. He was not noted as having made suicidal statements during booking, per information on the custodial death report (CDR) about Mr. Garcia, which was prepared by the Nueces County Sheriff’s Office and filed with the Office of the Attorney General in Texas on June 30, 2021.

Learn more in Part 1 and this continuing series.

Helping Texas inmates in municipal and county jails is the purpose of the posts on this site, and the website itself was established for the same reason. There is never a time on this site when there is an intention of inferring that misdeeds have occurred on the part of individuals or entities.

–Guest Contributor