Anthony Lee Villarreal had been an inmate in Hidalgo County Jail in Edinburg, Texas, for five days when he died on October 10th, 2020. Just prior to his death, Mr. Villarreal had been placed in a restraint chair, where he experienced a second seizure. The first seizure had occurred a few minutes prior to his being strapped into the restrictive device.

A Man Dies Strapped into a Restraint Chair Continued

A security camera at the jail outside Texas shows that a restraint chair was rolled to the area where the inmate was still lying on the floor. Eight corrections officers picked him up, placed him in the restraint chair, and strapped his legs, arms, and torso. The inmate was moved out of the medical unit to the psychiatric department. Records show that the chair was tethered to the wall and then he sat there immobilized, strapped in. 

According to allegations in the news, a report shows that the inmate was checked on, as required, every 10 minutes. Video review showed that more than a dozen of those observation checks did not occur as required. Records were allegedly falsified, claiming that the inmate was being checked on.

When officers did actually observe the inmate, the notation made was that he was awake for about 90 minutes and then appeared to be sleeping. When officers went to remove the inmate from the restraint chair that he had been sitting in for hours, they discovered that he was dead. He died of organ failure caused by a sickle cell crisis and following a physical altercation.

Learn more in Part 1 and this ongoing series.

Implicating persons or entities in acts of wrongdoing is never intended on this website. Each post on this site is meant as a resource to benefit Texas prisoners detained in county jails.

–Guest Contributor