Donald Oscar Cruz Dies in Nueces County, Texas Jail

The Nueces County Sheriff’s Office, in Corpus Christi, Texas, filed a custodial death report with the Attorney General of Texas regarding the death of Donald Oscar Cruz. Mr. Cruz was only 48 years old at the time of his death. We provide information in this post obtained from the report, but we do not allege that anyone did anything wrong with regard to Mr. Cruz’s death.

The summary portion of the custodial death report read:

“On Wednesday November 18, 2020 at 0559 hrs, a 35U (Unknown Medical Emergency) was called in unit 4R Cell #21 of the Nueces County Jail by Correctional Officer Nathaniel Armadillo. Correctional Officers Nathaniel Armadillo and Angel Salinas were passing out breakfast trays and discovered inmate Donald Cruz unresponsive on the lower bunk; they both observed that he did not appear to be breathing and had foam on his mouth. Both Officers attempted to awaken inmate Cruz until Nurses Cassie Guzman and Janet Cordero arrived at 0602 hrs. Nurses Guzman and Cordero performed life saving measures with CPR until Nurse Sandra Nuss arrived with an AED Device. After the AED Device was attached the Nurses continued with CPR and life saving measures. During this time Nurse Nuss ordered Sgt. Zachary Syler to call 911. At 0618 hrs, Corpus Christi Fire Department Medic Unit 1 arrived in the unit. At 0620 hrs EMS staff stated that inmate Cruz had flatlined and pronounced him deceased. CCFD Medic 1 departed the facility at 0630 hrs. Inmate Cruz’s body was secured in 4R Cell #21 under guard. At 0622 hrs, Captain Patrick Whitmore (On-Call Jail Captain) and Lt. Eduardo Nunez (CID) were notified of the death in custody. Shortly thereafter Captain Whitmore, Lt. Nunez and CID Sgt. Marilyn King arrived. Captain Whitmore provided copies of all booking file and shift paperwork to Lt. Nunez. At 0847 hrs, Sgt. King and Texas Ranger Cody Lankford accessed Cell #21 to take photographs. At 0854 hrs, Medical Examiners Officer Staff Diana Ybanez, Sophia Bayder and Veronica Vaiz arrived and departed with inmate Cruz’ body at 0915 hrs.”

The report does not provide any information in the following fields: Death Code; Manner of Death Description; Custody Cody; Code of Charges; Intoxicated; and Medical Treatment Description. The report does indicate that Mr. Cruz was initially placed into custody on November 13, 2020 at approximately 2:24 a.m.

Without regard to what happened to Mr. Cruz, the 14^th Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees the right of pretrial detainees in Texas to receive reasonable medical care. Jailers must provide medical care to inmates, if requested, or if it is needed. If jailers fail or refuse to do so, and meet the constitutional standard, and a person dies as a result, then jailers may be liable to certain surviving family members. Likewise, cities and counties can be liable for jail deaths if policies, practices, and/or customs of those cities or counties led to the death.

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.