HOUSTON – A Harris County medical examiner has ruled the manner of death of a 32-year-old man involved in a struggle with detention officers while being escorted out of the Harris County Jail a homicide.
32-year-old Alexis Jovany Cardenas died while being escorted out of the Harris County Jail on July 8.
Cardenas had been in jail since Sunday, July 6, when the Houston Police Department arrested him on multiple outstanding municipal misdemeanor warrants.
Video footage from the jail showed a detention officer open the door for Cardenas to leave the jail around 12:50 a.m. on July 8. Cardenas appears to point at his phone before a struggle ensues, which resulted in Cardenas being dragged and having his pants removed. A detention officer also got pulled to the ground and another one fired a Taser. Cardenas fought his way into another secure room of the jail where other inmates awaited release, where several detention officers ultimately pinned him down for about eight minutes, at which point they realized he was unresponsive.
He was transported to St. Joseph Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 1:57 a.m.
The medical examiner’s report rules Cardenas’ manner of death a homicide. The report names the primary cause of death as cardiac dysrhythmia. While the report mentions the toxic effects of several drugs in Cardenas’ system, it also mentions physical and electrical restraint as factors in his death.
During a press conference in August, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said one sergeant and six detention officers had been temporarily reassigned to duties that do not involve direct contact with inmates following the ongoing investigation into the inmate’s death.
The Texas Rangers are investigating the incident and the sheriff’s office said they were conducting an administrative investigation to determine whether all relevant policies were followed.