Families of men who died in custody at a Houston jail demand Justice Department probe of the facility

By Amy Simonson, Chris Boyette and Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN

Families of three men who died last month in custody at Houston’s Harris County Jail are calling on the US Justice Department to investigate what their attorneys call an “extraordinary number” of deaths and “a pervasive pattern and culture of death” at the facility.

“No one should receive a phone call, no one, telling them that their loved one is deceased and (get) no answers,” said Octavia Wagner, the older sister of the late Jacoby Pillow, whose relatives joined those of Kevin Smith Jr. and Smith’s uncle — who also died at the jail — at a news conference Monday in Houston with attorneys Ben Crump and Paul Grinke.

The issue of detainee deaths, though, extends beyond those families’ cases, Crump said. Four in-custody deaths have been recorded this year by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, following 27 such deaths in 2022 and 21 in 2021, spokesperson Angelique Myers told CNN.

“You have over 50 families who lost their loved ones. Houston, we have a problem, we have a serious problem,” said Crump, a civil rights attorney who also represents the family of Tyre Nichols, a Black father fatally beaten last month by police in Memphis.

The demand in Houston for a federal probe comes as law enforcement use of force, especially against African Americans, is under scrutiny nationwide.

The FBI is investigating allegations of federal civil rights violations in the deaths of Pillow and Jaquaree Simmons, who died at the Harris County jail in 2021, the bureau’s Houston Field Office confirmed to CNN.

The county sheriff last week asked the agency to look into those cases “because I want our community to fully trust our commitment to transparency and full accountability,” he said Monday in a news release.

“I look forward to learning the FBI’s findings, because we must all know the full truth if we are to improve our operation and make the jail as safe as possible for everyone entrusted into our care,” Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said, adding an internal probe into Simmons’s death found “policy violations” that led to the firing of 11 sheriff’s employees and the suspension of six.

A former Houston Police detention officer, Eric Niles Morales, also was indicted on a manslaughter charge in the case, the release said; his attorney didn’t immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Pillow’s death also is being investigated by the Houston Police Department, the sheriff’s office said.

The Justice Department referred CNN to the FBI statement. CNN also has reached out to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office and asked Houston Police about any open investigations into inmate deaths.

Families want videos and records related to deaths

Relatives of Pillow and Smith, with their attorneys, also want all videos and records related to the deaths released, Grinke said, adding they have yet to get autopsy results.

“We believe that this is a pervasive pattern and culture of death inside this jail,” Grinke said.

Pillow, 31, died January 3 in the Harris County Jail after staff “used force to restrain” him after he was accused of assaulting a detention officer while being released on bond, the sheriff’s office news release said. After medical staff evaluated him, Pillow was returned to his cell, where he was later found unresponsive, then taken to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead, it said.

Pillow’s cause of his death is still pending, the sheriff’s office said.

Smith Jr. also died in Harris County Jail in January, just weeks before his uncle died in the facility, a news release from Crump said. Smith’s parent’s, Kevin Smith Sr. and Tracy Woodson Smith, demanded answers Monday.

“I wanna know what went on with my son,” his mother said.

Smith’s father got a call a few weeks after his son’s death saying his brother Gary had died at the jail from a seizure, he said, adding his brother had no known history of seizures.

“I need some justice for my son and my brother,” he said. “I just need this done.”

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CNN’s Travis Nichols contributed to this report.