Kevin Alexander Sanchez-Trejo Dies in Harris County Jail

The Harris County Sheriff’s Department, in Houston, Texas, filed a report regarding the custodial death of Kevin Alexander Sanchez-Trejo. Mr. Sanchez-Trejo was only 21 years old at the time of his death. We provide in this post limited information we obtained from that report, and we make no allegation of any wrongdoing against anyone.

The summary portion of the report reads in its entirety:

“On February 12, 2022, the decedent was discovered unresponsive in his single cell by a sergeant during supervisory rounds. Medical personnel responded, started life-saving measures, and transported the decedent to the clinic. Clinic medical staff continued life-saving measures, and the Houston Fire Department was contacted. Paramedics arrived and assumed life-saving measures. At 8:19 a.m., Houston Fire Department personnel determined the decedent had no signs of life.”

Thus, the report provides no information regarding how often jailers were checking Mr. Sanchez-Trejo, whether Mr. Sanchez-Trejo previously had medical and/or mental health issues in the jail, and/or what it was that ultimately led to Mr. Sanchez-Trejo’s death. The Harris County Sheriff’s Department also failed to provide any information in response to the following fields: Death Code; Intoxicated; Custody Code; Code of Charges; Medical Treatment Description; and Manner of Death Description. Interestingly, the Harris County Sheriff’s Department wrote “Unknown” in response to fields “Make Suicidal Statements” and “Exhibiting any Mental Health Problems.”

Mr. Sanchez-Trejo as well as all other inmates in county jails across Texas, have constitutional rights to receive reasonable medical care and reasonable mental health care. If those rights were violated, and they led to his death, then certain surviving family members may be able to bring a lawsuit.

The Harris County jail apparently continues to have serious issues. In fact, Harris County jail employees filed a federal lawsuit against Harris County in or about September 2021 regarding working conditions. It appears from our Texas civil rights law firm’s review of various occurrences that the Harris County jail is having far too many deaths. Hopefully, Harris County will quickly address its issues and avoid any further unnecessary injury and/or death of inmates.

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.