Mom Sues After Mentally Ill Son Dies of Hypothermia, Naked, on the Floor of a Jail Cell | Crime Alert 2PM 11.21.25

A mother in metro Atlanta speaks out as she sues over her son’s death, three years after he froze to death inside a DeKalb County jail cell – at the very same jail she patrolled for two decades. A state appeals court in Texas overturns a major fentanyl conviction after discovering that only 11 jurors took part in the trial. Drew Nelson reports.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Alart hourly update, breaking crime news Now. I'm Drew Nelson.
A mother in Metro Atlanta, speaks out as she sues
over her son's death. Three years after he froze to
death incited to Cap County Jail cell at the very
same jails she patrolled for two decades, Tony Walker filed
a wrongful death lawsuit and said the new details in

(00:20):
her son, Anthony Lamar Walker's case still leave her stun
She says she learned deputies had documented erratic behavior from
the moment her son arrived in December twenty twenty two.
One staffer wrote, quote, his behaviors were very erratic over
the last few days, while another said, quote, he bangs
a lot, he yells a lot, and he paces a lot.

(00:40):
Record showed he was not eating and had urinated on
his clothes. Walker said her son lived with schizophrenia and
had been treated at the jail before she told w
ANF she believed he would be monitored.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
So I figure, okay, great, not great that he's there,
but at least he's somewhere. I know where he is,
and he'll get medicated properly instead.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Outside temperatures fell into the teens that night, and the
lawsuit claims the inside temperature dropped into the fifties. Jail
leadership sent an email warning staff about the cold and
instructed them to give inmates two blankets. Security video later
showed jail staff wearing winter jackets inside the facility. Walker's
thirty four year old son received no cover. He was

(01:24):
seen naked on the concrete floor of his cell. Eight
days after his arrest. Deputies found him unresponsive. Records show
medical staff did not perform CPR. The medical examiner ruled
the cause of death hypothermia, unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Like I feel like I'm in a hal episode of
the Twilight Zone. You let a person freeze to death,
no one deal with their job.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
The lawsuit claimed staff and medical providers ignored clear signs
of a mental health crisis and did not give him
medication or proper psychiatric care. One nurse claims she checked
on him at seven am. Security video showed she never
looks into his cell. Walker says the indifference shocked her,
especially after her own long career inside the same jail.

(02:09):
She spent nearly twenty three years working there.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
I used to be very proud of the fact that
I worked there. But now I can. I'm embarrassed, I'm upset,
I'm hurt, I'm deeply hurt.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Walker said she wants the Sheriff's office and its former
medical contractors held accountable. She is seeking damages for civil
rights violations, wrongful death, negligence, and violations of the Americans
with Disabilities Act. More crime and justice news after this

(02:43):
The state appeals court in Texas overturns a major fentanyl
conviction after discovering that only eleven jurors took part in
the trial. The ruling came this week in Dallas County.
Judges wrote that the case quote defies logic and said
the records show no sign that a twelfth juror ever
again existed. The court said the error violates the Texas Constitution.

(03:04):
The Dallas County District Attorney's office released a brief statement
saying the quote appellate opinion speaks for itself, and the
office is now reviewing the record to see whether any
trace of a twelfth juror can be found. The office
also said it cannot yet comment on what will happen next.
The case involved a Dallas man by the name of
Richard Leal. He was convicted in April and sentenced to

(03:25):
thirty years. His case was the county's first fentanyl dealing
case tried before a jury. The Fifth Court of Appeals
said the transcript showed the judge called the names of
only eleven jurors, just as Mike Lee wrote, quote, it
defies logic that neither the trial judge, nor the bailiff,
nor the court reporter, nor either party noticed throughout the
entire trial that the jury box was missing a twelfth juror.

(03:48):
Yet the record demonstrates exactly that. Judge Gracie Lewis presided
over the trial. In an email to WFAA, she wrote, quote,
I can assure you that there was a twelfth juror.
I do not have any independent recollection of this particular case,
but I have never tried a case with only eleven jurors. Furthermore,
the fact that none of the attorneys brought it up
during the trial would underscore that there were twelve jurors.

(04:11):
The DA's office argued on appeal that Leal's attorney did
not object when the court called only eleven names, and
that this failure quote forfeited his complaint for review. The
appeals court rejected that argument and wrote that the state's
position quote is without merit. The case began in February
twenty twenty three, when Dallas police stopped Leal during a
search for a wanted person. They found a gun, crack, cocaine, marijuana,

(04:36):
fifty seven counterfeit, thirty milligram oxycodone pills which actually contained fentanyl,
met themphetamine pills, and other drugs. Court records said he
told officers the cocaine was for personal use and that
the pills were samples given to him to distribute quote
to his people. Leal was later charged with manufacturing or
delivering between four and two hundred grams of fentanyl. His

(04:59):
prosecution was brought under the new Texas law that created
harsher penalties for fentanel dealing. He was sentenced after a
jury found him guilty last year. Now that sentence is
vacated and the case will return to the trial court,
the DA's office is still reviewing what happened. For the
latest crime and justice news, follow crime alerts hourly update

(05:19):
on your favorite podcast app with this crime alert. I'm
Drew Nelson.