KEY POINTS

  • Texas inmate Joel Sambrano died at the hospital after an attempted suicide
  • The 20-year-old was charged of capital murder, along with two others in the home invasion and death of Roy Ponce in 2018
  • Authorities are now investigating Sambrano's death by hanging, which was similar to the deaths of Sandra Bland and Derrek Monroe

The criminal investigations division of the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office in Texas has started investigating the death of inmate Joel Sambrano, who died on Tuesday after attempting suicide.

According to local newspaper the San Antonio Express-News, the 20-year-old was found hanging himself at around 6 a.m. Deputies worked to cut Sambrano down and he was taken to Baptist Hospital.

Sambrano, who was declared dead at the hospital about an hour after his attempted suicide, was one of the three suspects in the shooting of Roy Ponce in 2018. Authorities said Sambrano and the other suspects attacked Ponce and the latter died from a gunshot wound.

A brief police chase ensued after an officer near Ponce’s home at the time of the fatal shooting heard the gunshots. Sambrano escaped but was arrested roughly two months after the ambush on Ponce’s residence. He was then charged with capital murder.

At the time of his arrest, CBS affiliate KENS reported that Sambrano was smiling when he was being ushered by police. With handcuffs on and cameras rolling upon his arrest, Sambrano said, “Yeah, I’m happy.”

The San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) also revealed at that time that Sambrano himself told authorities he was wanted for capital murder aside from the car burglaries that he was arrested for.

Sambrano is not the first of Texas county jail inmates to attempt suicide and die from it, with Sandra Bland’s hanging death in 2015 being the most talked about of all U.S. inmate deaths in the same manner.

Another sensational Texas inmate death was that of Derrek Monroe in 2018. The Associated Press reported about a year after Monroe’s passing that security rules prohibiting a jail guard to enter a cell alone may have contributed to the delay in supposedly saving Monroe.

Monroe used a phone cord to strangle himself and died at the hospital the next day. Bland, on the other hand, reportedly used a makeshift noose she created from a plastic garbage bag to hang herself.

Video footage from Bland’s arrest showed that arresting trooper Brian T. Encinia pointed a stun gun at Bland when she was pulled over for not signaling during a lane change and refusing to put out her cigarette.

Executive director of the Texas Jail Project Diana Claitor revealed last year that jails across the state are understaffed, posing challenges for jail guards in ensuring that all inmates are doing well.

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