Man Commits Suicide in Odessa (Ector County), Texas Jail

The Ector County Sheriff’s Office recently filed a custodial death report with Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas, regarding the death of Antonio Villa Mendoza. We provide in this post information obtained from that report, and we make no allegation of any wrongdoing against anyone related to Mr. Mendoza’s death.

The Ector County Sheriff’s Office jail is located in Odessa, Texas. The report does not provide any information about the time of Mr. Mendoza’s initial incarceration in the jail. However, the report indicates that Mr. Mendoza was incarcerated and held in the booking area of the Ector County Law Enforcement Center. He was housed in a single cell in the booking area. While Mr. Mendoza was in a single cell, he used his jail-issued uniform, by tearing it up, as a strangulation device. He attached the fabric to the cell divider and hung himself while in the cell.

The report indicates that jail staff located Mr. Mendoza and administered CPR. He was then transported to a local hospital and pronounced deceased by medical staff.

The Texas Rangers will be conducting an investigation of Mr. Mendoza’s suicide. Texas law requires that an agency other than that involved in custodial death conduct such an investigation. An autopsy is also usually conducted when a custodial death occurs.

The report provides no information about whether Mr. Mendoza was observed on a specified periodic basis, as required by the  Texas Commission on Jail Standards. The report also provides no information regarding whether Mr. Mendoza had indicated that he was suicidal and or might harm himself. We find that most reports like that regarding Mr. Mendoza will indicate information about the deceased and his or her state of mind.

Without regard what happened to Mr. Mendoza, as a general matter, the United States Constitution protects pre-trial detainees like Mr. Mendoza from self-harm tendencies. If jailers are aware that a person is suicidal or has other self-harm tendencies, and jailers are deliberately indifferent, the jailers may be liable to certain surviving family members. These type of claims are usually filed in a federal court in Texas, and they are brought pursuant to a federal statute – 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

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.