El Paso County Jail – Man Dies After Serious Illness

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Department, in El Paso, Texas, recently filed a custodial death report with the Attorney General of Texas.  The report was regarding the death of Gilberto Egure-Garcia.  Mr. Egure-Garcia was 62 years of age at the time of his death.  Information in this post was obtained from that report, and we make no allegation of any wrongdoing against anyone

Mr. Egure-Garcia was originally incarcerated in the El Paso County, Texas jail on February 14, 2019 for alleged possession of marijuana.  On March 1, 2019, at 8:55 AM, Mr. Egure-Garcia was transferred to pod 1500 from pod 700.  He was transferred to monitor his health, because it appeared to be deteriorating.  Mr. Egure-Garcia was housed in cell 1507–A.  This was a single-man cell.  It was a lock-down cell with a camera.

At 10:50 AM on March 1, 2019, someone left a lunch plate inside of Mr. Egure-Garcia’s cell.  An officer observed Mr. Egure-Garcia laying on his bunk, allegedly sleeping.  The jailer told Mr. Egure-Garcia that he would leave the food on the table.  Mr. Egure-Garcia mumbled and allegedly nodded his head in acknowledgment.

At 4:04 PM, the same jailer delivered a dinner plate to Mr. Egure-Garcia.  The report indicates that the jailer observed, apparently for the first time, that the first food plate from hours before had not been eaten.  The jailer noted that Mr. Egure-Garcia was breathing heavily, with his eyes open, and lying in his bunk.  The jailer then called the clinic to advise that Mr. Egure-Garcia appeared to be ill.

At 4:40 PM, a mental health stroke social worker checked on Mr. Egure-Garcia and determined that he needed medical treatment.  At 8:25 PM, medical staff were dispensing medication to the pod and informed the clinic that Mr. Egure-Garcia needed medical evaluation.  At 9:10 PM, Mr. Egure-Garcia was finally transferred to a clinic for evaluation.  Approximately 35 minutes later, Mr. Egure-Garcia was transferred by ambulance to an area hospital.

Mr. Egure-Garcia remained at the hospital from March 1 to March 18, 2019.  Mr. Egure-Garcia was pronounced deceased at 9:30 PM on March 18, 2019.

The report does not provide any explanation as to what occurred, if anything, regarding Mr. Egure-Garcia in the intervening times referenced above.  Mr. Egure-Garcia had constitutional rights to receive medical care, and for jailers not to be deliberately indifferent to his medical needs.

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.