HOUSTON – The family of a man who died in the custody of the Harris County Jail last month, is teaming up with others to raise their concerns about standards within Texas’ largest jail to the Office of the Attorney General.
This after they say they’ve gotten no explanation on how the 39-year-old died.
The detainee’s mother says it’s simple. Even in jail, you’re supposed to be innocent until proven guilty and receive adequate care while in custody, but instead of a fair trial, she says her son is going from custody to casket.
”This is my son, Kristopher McGregor, he was a happy fun loving person, just loved life to the fullest,” said his mother, Citterece McGregor.
She says her son was booked into the Harris County Jail on a theft charge back on January 2, but never made it out of HCSO’s custody alive.
”On the 30th around 8 p.m., they (HCSO) reached out to my daughter-in-law and said that we needed to call back, and by that time Kristopher had passed,” she said.
She says she’s confused about how the healthy former University of Houston football player died.
”We actually did not get notified when he went to Ben Taub with this medical emergency and we were not able to see him before he passed away. So I have no idea of what he looked like or what was going on,” McGregor said.
”And have you seen him yet?” Deven Clarke asked.
“No,” she responded.
”Why haven’t you seen him?” Clarke asked.
”Because he was at the medical examiner’s office for an autopsy, and today we had him sent for an independent autopsy since we have not been able to get any information from Harris County, we have not gotten a call or anything,” she replied.
While the case remains pending, Citterece McGregor now joins Jacilet Griffin on a growing list of family members with questions about how their loved ones died in Harris County Jail custody.
”My son, Evan, died March 22, in 22. 1,057 days and we still have no closure, no answers, zero transparency,” Griffin said. “Therefore, I’ve been advocating. I visited the Texas Jail Commission meeting this past Thursday, February the 6th, just continuing to share what I am going through,” Griffin said.
At that meeting, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards called for the OAG to force compliance hoping to prevent future in custody deaths. Members of the Texas Jail Project say the state’s largest jail, has surpassed the mandated staff to detainee ratio of 1-48. They believe non-compliance correlates with jail deaths.
”We had 22 (HCSO custody deaths) reported in 2021, we had 28 reported in 2022; one of the highest ever, we had 19 in 2023, and two were not reported so that’s 21, we had 11 in 2024, and we had three so far in 2025,” said Krish Gundu, cofounder of Texas Jail Project.
Kristopher McGregor is in that latest number.
”I think about it everyday all day. It’s very hard to process all of this. This will be with me for the rest of my life,” Citterece McGregor said. “And I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.”
While we wait to see how the OAG responds to the request to force compliance, we know that McGregor’s death is being investigated by Texas Rangers as part of standard procedure. After the investigation, the findings will be turned over to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
