Pasadena investigating woman's death in city jail

Pasadena police are investigating the death of a 21-year-old woman in a city jail cell four hours after she was booked into the facility.

Vance Mitchell, a spokesman for the Pasadena Police Department, confirmed the agency is conducting an internal investigation into the death of Stephanie Hernandez on Oct. 19.

"All I can tell you is it's under investigation," Mitchell said on Friday. "She was arrested, she was processed into the jail and placed in a cell."

Mitchell said Hernandez was taken to a cell block with other women inmates about 8:45 p.m. Oct. 18. The jail is in the same building as the police department. Hernandez went to sleep.

Other inmates later noticed she had not moved for some time and called jail staff. She was dead by 12:41 a.m., or about four hours later.

"The other prisoners thought she was sleeping and they didn't disturb her 'til a while went by and she wasn't moving, so they checked at that point," Mitchell said. "Eventually one of them went over there and poked her to see if she was all right. She wasn't breathing, so they called the jailers at that point."

Mitchell said the internal investigation will determine if any altercations occurred between Hernandez, police officers or jail staff, and whether jailers regularly checked on the inmate as required by law. Texas Jail Commission standards require that jailers make a "face to face" check on combative, suicidal or mentally ill inmates every 30 minutes, and other inmates are checked no less than every hour.

A Custodial Death Report filed with the Texas attorney general by Pasadena police earlier this week stated that Hernandez was "belligerent" with the arresting officer when she was first brought into the jail after she was arrested at 7:45 p.m. Hernandez was in a car with her boyfriend, who was stopped after a short police chase and arrested. Hernandez originally was arrested on suspicion of public intoxication but was booked into the Pasadena jail on an outstanding probation violation in Bexar County.

"She was belligerent with arresting officer when she first came into the jail, but eventually calmed down by the time she processed (for fingerprints) and confined in a cell," the police department's death report stated.

The report also stated that Hernandez had several seizures in the cell but did not say what caused them. Her death also is under investigation by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, and a ruling on the cause of death is pending.

"During the night, according to another inmate, Hernandez had a couple of seizures," states the police department death report. "The other inmates did not report the seizures until they thought she might be deceased."

Mitchell said police investigators are reviewing jail surveillance footage and jail logs to determine if the required checks were made by jailers on duty.

"I'm sure they did, but I don't have exact times" of the checks, Mitchell said. "But that's part of the investigation, and we're pulling all the videos and logs. There is a way to go back and check the time line."