The family of a 32-year-old Houston man who died last month after Harris County Jail officers held him down and attempted to tase him says he was failed by “every single system that was supposed to ensure his safety.”
A 17-minute video released August 1 by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office shows Alexis Jovany Cardenas resisting officers who were attempting to escort him out of the jail for release. His family says he was in a mental health crisis.
“I think he was experiencing depression and hopelessness,” Cardenas’ cousin Melissa said shortly after his death. “What person in their right mind wouldn’t want to leave jail? If he’s telling you, ‘I feel unsafe leaving,’ call someone over to help him. Take him to the mental health facility.”
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said at a recent press conference that when booked into the jail on July 6, Cardenas underwent a standard medical screening. “This 38-question process revealed no major physical or mental health issues,” Gonzalez said.
The jail surveillance video doesn’t include audio of what was being said between Cardenas and officers who appeared to try to subdue him so he could exit the facility. Cardenas was pinned to the ground for about seven minutes when officers realized he was unresponsive, the video shows.
A video released by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office shows Alexis Cardenas struggling with officers in what his family says was a mental health crisis.
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Cardenas’ cousin Lizette Medrano said no one asked the family’s permission before releasing the “horrific video of Alexis’ murder at the hands of HCSO staff” on YouTube. Cardenas left behind a wife and four children ranging in age from 5 to 14.
“We feel that Alexis has been stripped of his dignity even in death. He did not deserve this, and his family and young children do not deserve this. We find HCSO’s decision deeply deplorable and unforgivable,” Medrano said in a family statement, which is published in its entirety at the bottom of this story.
“We condemn HCSO’s actions in the strongest terms possible,” the statement continues. “Especially the actions of deputies who escalated the situation right from the get-go instead of de-escalating. We did not see Alexis fighting. We saw him asking for help, followed by the deputies escalating the situation.”
Twelve in-custody deaths have been reported so far this year by Harris County, including three in a 48-hour period in June. There were 10 in-custody deaths in 2024.
Cardenas was taken to jail on July 6 after he approached a Houston police officer in a parking lot and said he feared for his life. His family says the interaction was a cry for help and he should have been taken to a hospital.
But the officer ran his identification and found that he had an outstanding misdemeanor “failure to appear” warrant related to a traffic ticket from several years ago. According to family members, the arresting officer drove Cardenas to leave his car keys with Cardenas’ wife before taking him to jail. That was the last time his wife saw him alive.
Krish Gundu, cofounder and executive director of the Texas Jail Project, said no one has explained why Cardenas was being released around midnight. It’s against state law and local policy to release inmates between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., Gundu said. It appeared from the video that he was asking for help with his phone. He may have been concerned about how he was going to get home, she said.
“People are forgetting the context in which he was arrested and the context in which he was released,” Gundu said. “He was the one who stopped law enforcement to ask for help because he thought someone was out to get him. He didn’t get any help in the jail in the 30-something hours he was there. And they’re releasing him at midnight.”
“Is he asking for help to charge [his phone] or to make a phone call?” she continued. “How was he going to get home? People are like, ‘Why wouldn’t he just leave?’ Hello, it’s midnight. He was still in crisis because he never got any help. He was still thinking someone was out to get him, maybe, and you’re kicking out this guy in that frame of mind, with a non-working phone at midnight.”
At the August 1 press conference, Sheriff Gonzalez said that Cardenas’ cause of death is pending autopsy by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences. Authorities have said the video shows that an officer pointed a Taser at Cardenas but it didn’t appear to be functional.
The Texas Rangers are investigating the incident that led to the death, and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office is also reviewing the matter and could present the case to a grand jury. An internal affairs investigation is underway to confirm compliance with all relevant policies. It is the department’s policy to release relevant video footage of critical incidents within 45 days, Gonzalez said.
The sheriff said as a result of last month’s incident, he temporarily reassigned one sergeant and six detention officers to “duties that do not entail contact with inmates until we have a more complete picture of what happened.”
“It would be improper to comment on the facts of the case before those investigations have concluded,” Gonzalez said. “While the video provides important insight into the moments before Mr. Cardenas’ death, I urge folks to please be mindful that we will not have a complete understanding of all the relevant facts until the investigations are complete.”
Gonzalez offered condolences to Cardenas’ family but did not join them last week when they watched the video about an hour before it was released to the public.
“Every life is sacred and that’s true for each and every one of the nearly 9,000 people entrusted into our custody on any given day,” Gonzalez said. “As sheriff, I am extremely concerned any time a life is lost. I also recognize that our detention officers are hardworking public servants who are frequently called upon to deal with extremely challenging situations that come with operating the largest jail in Texas.”
About 78 percent of those housed at the Harris County Jail have a “mental health indicator,” according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.
Photo by April Towery
According to a sheriff’s office press release issued shortly after the in-custody death, Cardenas “was being escorted to an exit door when he physically resisted detention officers as they attempted to walk him outside the building. One detention officer deployed his Taser in an effort to gain control of Cardenas, but it was not immediately effective. At one point, Cardenas briefly forced his way back into the secure area of the jail where inmates were being processed for release.”
Multiple officers eventually “gained control over Cardenas,” the press release states.
“Once control was established, they noticed that Cardenas was unresponsive,” according to the release. “A detention officer then administered CPR while jail medical staff responded to the area to administer aid. Cardenas was then taken to St. Joseph Hospital, where he was pronounced deceased at 1:57 a.m.”
At last week’s press conference, Gonzalez said Cardenas was almost out the door when he turned around and forced his way back inside an area referred to as the releasing vestibule.
“A struggle ensued and at one point, a detention officer deployed his taser, which didn’t appear to have any effect,” Gonzalez said. “At one point, Mr. Cardenas forced his way back into the secure area of the jail where inmates were still being processed for release. Multiple detention officers eventually engaged in the struggle to gain control over Mr. Cardenas, who proved extremely difficult to restrain.”
“After control was established, the detention officers noticed that Mr. Cardenas was unresponsive,” Gonzalez added. “A detention sergeant then administered CPR while jail medical staff responded to the area to render additional aid. Cardenas was then taken to St. Joseph Hospital by the Houston Fire Department, where he was pronounced deceased at 1:57 a.m.”
Cardenas’ cousin Melissa described the man as a kind-hearted person who had been suffering from mental health issues.
“He was like my brother,” she said in a July interview with the Houston Press. “My dad basically raised him. We were very close. He was a protector, the one who says, I got your back no matter what. He was the one who would show up at all our aunts’ houses on Mother’s Day with the roses. He would give his last dollar and say God is going to bless me 10 times more.”
As of Monday, Harris County’s jail population was 8,704, with more than 1,528 of those inmates housed in other states. About 78 percent have a “mental health indicator,” which can signify a history of mental health problems or experiences of serious psychological distress in the 30 days prior to intake.
About 27 percent of Harris County’s current inmate population is on psychotropic medication, according to the sheriff’s department dashboard.
City and county jails in the Lone Star State are overseen by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, which has found Harris County noncompliant since 2022.
Medrano said from the time her cousin was arrested to the time of his death, he was failed by law enforcement.
“Right from the beginning, every single system that was supposed to ensure his safety failed him,” she said in the family statement. “Starting with the HPD officers who arrested him after he stopped them to ask for help during a mental health crisis. Then the jail’s medical and mental health screening failed him during intake and during the approximately 30 hours he was incarcerated.”
“The sheriff has publicly claimed that people brought in in mental health crises with non-violent misdemeanors are diverted from jail,” the letter continues. “Alexis had the lowest level charge possible and yet he was not diverted. It’s clear that Alexis was asking for some sort of help during release, but instead of helping him, officers decided to use force and dehumanize him.”