Robert Miller
Robert Miller, 38, was held at the Tarrant County Jail in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2019. His widow, Shanelle Jenkins, learned of his death from a newspaper article and has struggled to get information about it. According to a Fort Worth Star-Telegram investigation, officers pepper-sprayed him at least three times, and he told a nurse that he could not breathe and had asthma. Lone Star Left reported that his pleas for help were ignored and that he was found unconscious less than an hour later, dying the following day. The county first listed his cause of death as sickle cell crisis; a 2021 autopsy changed the manner to undetermined, later medical experts said the sickle cell trait he had was an unlikely cause, and KERA reported that a third-party expert hired by the county was never sent any material. The state custodial death report lists his death as August 1, 2019, while other accounts place it in July, and his family is still waiting for answers.
Cause of death, as reported: Killed by staff (disputed; neglect alleged). The county medical examiner first ruled the death a sickle cell crisis, but a Fort Worth Star-Telegram investigation reports that jailers pepper-sprayed him repeatedly and ignored his pleas for help, and the autopsy finding was later changed to undetermined.
Reported by: county medical examiner; Fort Worth Star-Telegram (reporters).