Andres Alberto Villarreal-Salguero Dies in Travis County Jail

The Travis County Sheriff’s Department, in Austin, Texas, filed a report regarding the custodial death of Andres Alberto Villarreal-Salguero. Mr. Villarreal-Salguero was only 30 years old at the time of his death. We provide information we obtained from that report, and we make no allegation of any wrongdoing against any specific person.

The report indicates that Mr. Villarreal-Salguero died by suicide. The summary portion of the report reads in its entirety:

“An officer discovered the decedent hanging in his cell and unresponsive during a post visual. He was cut down, life saving measures were attempted without success, and he was pronounced deceased.”

The report also indicates that Mr. Villarreal-Salguero exhibited mental health problems, exhibited medical problems, and made suicidal statements. The report provides no information regarding any ongoing mental health issues and/or any statements Mr. Villarreal-Salguero made regarding suicide.

The United States Constitution requires that counties protect Texas inmates from known suicidal and/or other self-harm tendencies. If a county has policies, practices, and/or customs which result in the death of a person by suicide, and/or county officials are deliberately indifferent to known suicidal and/or self-harm tendencies, then certain surviving family members may be able to bring a federal constitutional lawsuit. Our civil rights firm is litigating a number of unfortunate jail suicide cases across Texas.

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.