The Death of a Prisoner at Llano County Jail in Llano, Texas, is Under Investigation
Fifty-six-year-old Cindy Lou Yonker of Llano, Texas, was arrested and booked into Llano County Jail the night of December 24, 2017. The next day, in the booking area of the jail, she had a medical incident, according to Llano County Sheriff Bill Blackburn. Emergency medical services was contacted, and Yonker was transported to Dell Seton University Medical Center at the University of Texas in Austin. That same day, Yonker was released from Llano County Jail, and her case was dismissed. Chief Deputy John Neff of the Llano County Sheriff’s Office said she was released because of her medical condition. On January 2, 2018, at 7:08 p.m., about a week later, Dr. Justin Cegielski pronounced Yonker dead at the hospital. A toxicology report and autopsy by the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office has been requested, to determine the cause of death. Yonker’s passing is considered a custodial death, and it is under investigation by the Texas Rangers and the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS).
The Texas Justice Initiative is a project with the purpose of building narratives around custodial deaths in Texas. Those involved in the initiative studied data from 2005 through 2015 and found that the Texas Rangers investigated an average of 101 deaths per year. The two years with the most custodial deaths were 2006 and 2015, with 126 and 115 deaths, respectively. They also found that jail deaths outnumbered prison deaths and 76% of prisoners who died in jails had not been convicted of the crime for which they were imprisoned.
As with every post on this website, we are only providing information in this post and do not make any allegation or assertion that anyone acted inappropriately or engaged in misconduct.
–Guest Contributor
smchugh
smchugh