Man Commits Suicide in Travis County, Texas Jail

The Travis County Sheriff’s Department, in Austin, Texas filed a custodial death report regarding the in-custody death of Nicholas Orion Vanwyhe.  Mr. Vanwyhe was only 39 years old at the time of his death.  We provide information obtained from that report, and make no allegation of any wrong doing against anyone.

Mr. Vanwyhe was incarcerated in the Travis County jail at the time of his death.  The summary portion of the report reads in its entirety:

“The inmate, Nicholas Vanwyhe, hanged himself inside his cell using his bed sheet as a ligature. The unit in which Vanwyhe was housed had the inmates in single cells, and post visuals were conducted hourly. The post officer, Officer Guzman, conducted a post visual on April 30, 2021 at 21:33 start time, and ended at 21:37. During that post visual Officer Guzman observed Vanwyhe laying down on his bunk. The next post visual Officer Guzman conducted was at 21:59 start time. Officer Guzman discovered Vanwyhe had hanged himself inside his cell at 22:05, and hit his stat alarm button. Other officers arrived to cut the ligature and then began life saving measures until relieved by Austin EMS, but attempts to revive Vanwyhe were unsuccessful. Van Wyne was pronounced deceased at 2301 on April 30, 2021 by Doctor Abrehan.”

We have no other information regarding what happened to Mr. Vanwyhe, including whether he was on appropriate periodic checks, or whether he was on suicide watch at the time of his death.  The report does indicate that Mr. Vanwyhe made suicidal statements.  Thus, at least at some point during his incarceration, he should have been, in our opinion as a civil rights law firm handling jail suicide cases in Texas, on continuous monitoring.  Anything short of continuous monitoring of a person with suicidal tendencies is insufficient.  It takes only approximately 5 minutes to commit suicide. 

The 14^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the right of pre-trial detainees to be protected from themselves and others.  If those rights are violated, and a person dies as a result, certain surviving family members may have claims related 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.