ROSENBERG, Texas – Texas Rangers and the Fort Bend County District Attorney's Office are investigating the death of a man who died after being held at the Rosenberg City Jail on Monday, police said. Now his wife and mother said they want answers.
Joseph Gunter, 33, was well-known by Rosenberg police. Since 2004, he racked up a half-dozen convictions for drug possession and assault. He spent time in state prison. But his family said he didn't deserve to die.
"Joseph couldn't have killed himself. Joseph was not that kind of person," his common-law wife, Maria Martinez, said.
His wife was with him Monday afternoon when he was arrested. She said a Rosenberg police officer stopped them for walking on the wrong side of the street at Francis and Sally Anne streets.
She said the officer arrested Gunter when he refused to submit to a search. In a press release, Rosenberg police said Gunter was carrying drugs, had tampered with evidence, and had resisted arrest.
"Joseph had called me while he was in the jail and told me he was coming home in a couple of hours. He told me, 'Babe be ready. I'm coming out. I have to be at work at six in the morning,'" Martinez said.
Around 11:45 p.m. Monday, Martinez said police told her he'd been found dead in his cell earlier that evening. They told her that hanged himself with his own belt. Gunter was pronounced dead at Oak Bend Hospital.
"He couldn't have killed himself. Something happened in those hours," Martinez said.
Gunter's wife wants to know why his belt wasn't taken from him, which is standard jail procedure. His family has hired an attorney.
"I want answers. I want to know what happened to my son," his mother, Olga Fuentes, said.
Police said they believed Gunter's death was a suicide.