Another Taylor County, Texas Jail Inmate Dies in Custody

The Taylor County Sheriff’s Department recently filed a custodial death report with the Attorney General of Texas regarding the death of Margo Daniele Gomez. Ms. Gomez was only 34 years of age at the time of her death. Information in this post was obtained from that report, and we do not allege that anyone did anything wrong.

Ms. Gomez was originally incarcerated on January 3, 2019, a few minutes before 5:00 p.m. The report indicates that Ms. Gomez exhibited mental health problems, but it does not specify the nature of those problems. Moreover, the summary description of what occurred is, in our law firm’s experience, is extremely short. Most summaries in Texas custodial death reports provide at least an outline of what occurred and led to a person’s death. However, with regard to Ms. Gomez, the summary literally reads, “Miss Gomez was found unresponsive in her single cell. CPR was started until EMS arrived and took over.” While a short summary does not indicate that anyone did anything wrong, in our firm’s opinion, it is suspicious. Hopefully, the Texas Rangers will investigate Ms. Gomez’s death.

The Taylor County Sheriff’s Department has filed, since 2014, seven (7) custodial death reports. Four of those reports involve deaths on the following dates: June 11, 2017, February 2, 2018, May 3, 2018, and finally, regarding Ms. Gomez, January 10, 2019. While we do not address what occurred regarding those custodial deaths, or whether anything inappropriate occurred, it is worthy to note that the Taylor County, Texas population, as of year 2017, was only approximately 136,290.

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.