Press Release: 42-Year-Old Man Dies in El Paso County Jail from Ruptured Esophagus – Federal Lawsuit Filed

42-Year-Old Man Dies in El Paso County Jail from Ruptured Esophagus – Federal Lawsuit Filed

For Immediate Release

El Paso, Texas – January 30, 2025

42-Year-Old Vincent Leyva was arrested and booked into the El Paso County, Texas jail.  Witnesses indicate that, over the course of the next several days, Vincent visibly, physically deteriorated. He sought medical assistance at one point when he was having chest pain and could not breathe, but he was returned to his cell. At another point, when he was allowed to make an attorney phone call from a different cell, he could barely walk back to his cell and had to be held up, a jailer on one side and another detainee on the other. Predictably, and unfortunately, since Vincent was not taken to a local hospital emergency room, he died after suffering significantly with a ruptured esophagus.

Constitutional rights lawyer Dean Malone represents Vincent’s family members and filed a federal lawsuit against El Paso County.  Mr. Malone said, “We continue to see cases across our country where jail detainees are not receiving needed emergency medical care. There is no need for a man to die from a ruptured esophagus when there are skilled surgeons in El Paso that could have conducted necessary surgery. It is unfortunate that deaths continue in the El Paso County jail.”

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.