Man, 72, dies in hospital ICU while in Tarrant County Jail custody

A 72-year-old man who was in custody of the Tarrant County Jail died on Wednesday.

Lyonell Mitchell Jr. died in John Peter Smith Hospital’s ICU, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office. A cause of death is not yet listed.

Mitchell is the seventh person to die in the jail’s custody this year. No information about his death has been released by the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office, which oversees jail operations.

Alvie Johnson Jr., 74, was found by jailers on Jan. 1 with a head injury. Johnson was unconscious and taken to John Peter Smith Hospital, where he was placed on life support, according to the Attorney General’s Office. He died two days later.

James Carrell New, 80, died on Feb. 19 after spending a month in the jail. He was transferred to JPS on Jan. 28 for hypothermia with chest pain. He tested positive for COVID-19 a week earlier. The medical examiner declined to perform an autopsy.

Also in February, Edgar Villatoro-Alvarez, 40, of Austin, died in the ICU after being transferred from the jail. A cause of death is not yet listed on the medical examiner’s website. The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office has not released any information about Villatoro-Alvarez’s death. Law enforcement agencies must provide information about in-custody deaths to the AG’s office. The filed report only says Villatoro-Alvarez was taken to JPS after “a medical emergency was called.”

On June 17, Oh Young Park, 54, died by suicide in the jail. Park is the fourth man to die by hanging while inside the jail since 2020.

A week later, Thomas Simpkins, 70, died of heart failure. He had a previous diagnoses, according to the AG’s office.

In July, Trelynn Wormley, 23, was found unresponsive in his cell. Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn told KXAS-TV that he died of an apparent fentanyl overdose, the station reported.