Fifty-five-year-old Michael Joseph Tokos was an inmate at Jim Hogg County Jail in Hebbronville, Texas, beginning on August 17, 2022. On September 19, 2022, fellow bunkmates in the multiple occupancy cell where Mr. Tokos was housed contacted jailers because he seemed to be experiencing a medical emergency. They reported that he was shaking and nearly fell out of his bunk.

Details on Deaths at a County Jail Outside Texas

An Inmate Dies of Blunt Force Trauma

An elderly man approaching age 80 was one of the inmate deaths at the county jail outside Texas that has come under recent scrutiny. The man was a former religious leader who had been accused of sex charges. One day in 2022, he was found unresponsive in his cell. Jailers had him transported to a hospital, where it was reported that the man had numerous health complications. An autopsy was performed, and the Medical Examiner’s Office said it was an accidental death that had been caused by blunt force trauma to the head 8 days before he was taken to the hospital.

An Inmate Dies of a Pulmonary Embolism

A couple of months after the elderly inmate died, a young man of 26 collapsed in the jail after he hit his head. After collapsing, he was unresponsive and was pronounced deceased shortly thereafter. The autopsy results from the Medical Examiner’s Office listed natural causes as his death. He suffered a pulmonary embolism, which is when a blood clot becomes lodged in a lung artery.

Learn more in Part 1 and this continuing series.

Providing helpful resources to Texas prisoners held in local city and county jails is the purpose of this site. Making implications suggesting that organizations or individuals participating in wrongdoing is never intended on this website.

–Guest Contributor