CHAMBERS COUNTY, Texas – After sharing her first public statement with KPRC 2, Sarah Hartsfield is responding to the story she watched on a small TV from the Chambers County Jail on Thursday night, continuing to declare her innocence and railing against KPRC 2′s coverage of her case.
Minutes after the story aired, Hartsfield began writing a series of messages to KPRC 2′s Bryce Newberry using a kiosk inside her all-women jail cell. The pandemic-inspired system helps inmates stay connected with people outside of jail.
The messages continued coming all throughout the night with timestamps like 1:47 a.m., 3:20 a.m., 7:37 a.m., and 9:08 a.m.
In her initial statement, she wrote in part: “It’s about time I quit being vilified, by his family, and by the public. I never deserved how I was treated... and Joe, our relationship, our marriage - our story ended way too soon and not by any wrongdoing.”
READ Sarah’s full statement here
She was indicted by a grand jury in February after her husband of 11 months, Joseph Hartsfield, died in a Baytown hospital. The diabetic was rushed there by medics after his sugar level dropped dangerously low into the 40s and treatments by doctors continuously didn’t show results.
The Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled his cause of death “complications of toxic effects of insulin” but left the manner, which could be homicide, suicide, or natural causes, undetermined.
RELATED: Sarah Hartsfield murder case: Husband died of insulin complications, medical examiner rules
Court documents said investigators found up to 10 insulin pens on his side of the bed and that Joseph Hartsfield was making arrangements to leave her in the weeks leading up to his death.
In the series of overnight messages, Sarah Hartsfield claimed their marriage was not toxic and that he was not planning to leave her. She also denied waiting to call an ambulance after finding him unresponsive and denied ignoring a phone app that was allegedly alerting her about his low sugar, as court documents stated.
“It’s cruel as an elected official to break the sanctity and trust of his elected office talking openly about a case that hasn’t gone to trial,” Sarah Hartsfield wrote. “Expose what law enforcement have put me through! Make it known no one is to speak against defendants using their office to poison the well.”
She called her $4.5 million bond “unconstitutional” and said she was unjustly arrested and held.
“THERE is a story when a citizen with NO criminal history can be thrown in jail while they “think” I did something but aren’t sure and if DID do something they don’t know how,” she wrote. “It’s not right to take anyone’s life or liberty, condemn them to the media, the accused loses an entire lifetime of tangible assets due to a loss of financial means, I’m not a violent person and have never been known to be.”
Sarah Hartsfield wrote that she should be treated as innocent until proven guilty and that she loved Joe with all she had.
“MY STORY and the TRUTH have me walking out of this jail, free of all the false accusation I’ve been subjected in addition to what is seriously character assassination on a nationwide level,” she wrote. “I was a retired, honorably served combat veteran housewife who minded my own business and did nothing to harm anyone.”
According to a U.S. Army spokesperson, Sarah Hartsfield served in the Army from June 1997 to July 1998 and May 2007 to April 2017, with time in the Army Reserve from August 1998 to May 2007. She deployed to Iraq for less than a year and at the end of service, she was ranked a sergeant first class. According to sources, she held a top-secret security clearance.
In 2018, Sarah Hartsfield shot and killed her fiancée but wasn’t charged because Minnesota prosecutors determined it was self-defense.
In the overnight messages, Sarah Hartsfield said she has never been violent in any relationship or marriage. Regarding the Minnesota shooting, Sarah Hartsfield wrote that she was a domestic violence victim.
Since her Texas indictment, prosecutors in Minnesota have reopened the case.
“You need to quit the type of journalism found in grocery rags and be a reporter with class and dignity,” she wrote. “If I’m guilty of anything, it’s picking horrible husbands.”
In the series of messages, at 2:38 a.m. Friday she requested that KPRC 2 “show things in a positive light for me, verses reminding everyone of my faults and mistakes that span 28 years!”
Her next Texas court date has not been set. Judge Chap Cain lowered her $5 million bond by $500,000 on March 1, when she pleaded not guilty.