Two prison guards in Texas have been arrested and charged with homicide after they allegedly did nothing to remove an inmate from a burning cell, leading to his death
Two prison guards in Texas have been arrested and charged with negligent homicide after they allegedly failed to remove an inmate from a burning cell, leading to his death.
Lieutenant William Eugene Romero, 33, has been charged with criminally negligent homicide, while Sergeant Crystal Janelle West, 39, faces charges of second-degree manslaughter, according to Amarillo Globe-News.
The incident unfolded on Sunday at a Texas Department of Criminal Justice facility when an “uncooperative,” unnamed prisoner set his mattress alight inside his cell at the high-security William P. Clement Unit.
It’s reported that Romero and West, the guards on duty, refused to extract the inmate from his cell. He was discovered unresponsive an hour later. Both West and Romero were arrested later that day and escorted off the premises by police, reports the Mirror US.
Texas news outlet KFDA spoke to an anonymous source who revealed that the inmate, situated in a more isolated block at the end of the prison in a high-security situation, “was non-compliant to commands to put his hands in the food tray slot opening to be put in restraints, prompting officers to call for a supervisor.”
The supervisor, Romero, reportedly instructed West to keep the door shut, labelling the prisoner as a “security risk.”
West returned later to find smoke billowing out of the cell. The source added that West told the inmate that “she would not pull him out of the cell, she wouldn’t open the door. She refused to help in any way.”
Romero was ordered held on a $150,000 bond, and West on a $200,000 bond.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice told Law and Crime that “The agency is working closely with [Office of the Inspector General] and the Special Prosecution Unit so that those staff who allegedly failed to act will be held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
“Sgt. Crystal West was charged with manslaughter, a second-degree felony, and Lt. William Romero was charged with Criminal Negligence Homicide, a state jail felony. Both employees are no longer employed by the agency,” continued the statement from the agency.
The probe into what happened that day will carry on.
It’s understood that inmates perish from accidents, murders, taking their own lives, drug overdoses, amongst other causes within the prison system, though precise figures aren’t available for the entire U.S. However, in 2024, a Justice Department watchdog published a report that found 344 prisoner deaths at various correctional facilities, from 2014-2021 that were caused by suicide, homicide, accident or unknown factors due to safety failures by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
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