A Liberty County Jail inmate who attempted suicide in his jail cell last week has died, according to Sheriff Bobby Rader. He has been identified as Johnny Sunday, 27, of Vidor, Texas. He had been housed in the jail since his arrest on April 25 for Unauthorized Use of a Vehicle and had holds for additional charges in Jefferson and Sabine counties.
According to Sheriff Rader, the investigation into his death is being handled by the Texas Rangers, as is the protocol for all in-custody deaths. Sunday was found hanging in the bathroom area of a large jail cell shared by 20-plus men. Warden Ann Marie Mitchell said that prior to the suicide, Sunday’s family called the jail to ask for frequent checks on him as he reportedly was making threats to self-harm.
“The correctional officer checked on him. They went back to check on him again 15 minutes later and found that he had hanged himself in that 15-minute time frame using something from within the cell,” Mitchell said. “He was authorized to have what every inmate is allowed to have – commissary, linens and uniforms.”
When Sunday was discovered, he was cut down from where he was hanging. Medical personnel, who Rader says are stationed in the jail around the clock, began to perform CPR. When EMS personnel arrived, they continued life-saving measures and transported him to a hospital. On June 3, he succumbed to his injuries.
When asked if there are surveillance cameras that can timestamp when correctional officers checked on Sunday’s welfare, Mitchell said the camera in the hallway outside his jail cell was down and she had made a request to maintenance earlier in the day for it to be fixed. However, she said there were no maintenance workers available that day, so the camera was inoperable at the time that Sunday committed suicide.
“We followed all of the jail protocols. We did everything we were supposed to do other than having correctional officers inside the pod 24/7,” Mitchell said. “We weren’t aware he was having mental health issues until his family called and we would have tried to help him if he had asked for assistance. Now we will do our best to comply with the investigation.”
I beleive the cameras arent working and its never gonna be fixed bc they dont want liability when things like this happen. They knew bc the family informed them and the 15 min checks I dont beleive. Ive witnessed how they prolong booking people in and out, how they use their power to bulky these already broken people. They should have put him in a safer environment or should have a holding cell for those that should be watched 24/7 for these reasons. Hence, why some inmates shouldnt even be there they should be in a mental facitliy seeking help. The state gets paid per person they have yet they live on conrete and Id rather be dead than habe to live the way they expect you to live for sometimes hainous crimes and sometimes extremely bad crimes. This is am issue and it needs to be addressed a long with so many other factors.
How convenient that the cameras weren’t working. I call BS
It says that the family called and told the facility that he was talking about self harm and that the correctional officers went and checked on him and that he was good. So they left and then went back 15 minutes later and check on him and he was hanging then later on in the story it says that they were not aware of him having mental health issues but they obviously were aware if they had talked to his family and it caused them to go check on him in the first place. And when they got the call about him maybe harming himself why wasn’t he put in one of them suits so he wasn’t able to do so.
Absolute BS. All so convenient.
I do agree this should have been there responsibility to put him sage they shouldn’t of left him in that dorm point blank there shouldn’t have been no checking on hum in 15 mind he should of been removed immediately and put up safe thus was my little cousin and we have a really big family and we’re all in alot of pain and to just no these jails don’t take anyone serious it’s pathetic an inmate from his drm called his mother to inform her of what he was going thru so there is no way the jailer didn’t understand he wasent in a good mind frame if another inmate had time to call a man’s mother who he doesn’t even know then that’s says it all because the jail wasent at all doing there job so he had to call the man’s family yall at liberty county jail should be ashamed of urselves
I am his family. His mother told them before this happened he needed to be on suicide watch. The jailer said and I quote ” He’s on tha toilet he’s fine.” The inmates took him down! And another called his mother whom she didn’t know. He had one buddy in the dorm who was worried he’d been in tha shower too long. Went and checked on him after a while. So therefore I do not understand if he was checked on every 15 mins how the Dr says he was hanging much longer than just 15 mins….. this jail has quite a high # of suicides. And it seems the officers are marking their check points without doing any checking. Cameras not workin just in front of that cell… please. I’m sure it would show the officer NOT CHECKIN ON THE INMATES! That’s the reason I’m sure the cameras “were not working”… it’s sad he was a dad. My cousins son. My sons cousin and friend. His dad’s best friend. Yeah he did some f@!#!up things. Still it doesn’t mean that this jail shouldn’t have to pay for theirs as well. But they are the police and have can and will lie and falsify documents to cover their ass. Because tell me who is policing them??? Texas rangers don’t play games and I hope they are who they are supposed to be.
*pay for their wrongs as well
Liberty County GOOD OLE BOY SYSTEM
Man I know if I would have been there he wouldn’t have done this . He literally did this 2 days after I left…he came to me whenever he needed to talk cuz I could relate to the things he was going thru. He had his moments but I would always be there to tell him the things he needed to hear, to bring him back to reality instead of being in his head….im gonna miss you bro……WELCOME TO VIDOR
He was a kind soul, even though the things he did portrayed a different image.. karma is real.. he didn’t deserve that. This jail should be sued.