HOUSTON – A grand jury returned a no bill Tuesday for six detention officers involved in a physical altercation with a 32-year-old man at the Harris County Jail who later died after his release.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office said its Internal Affairs Division will present the case to the Administrative Disciplinary Committee to determine whether any policy violations occurred and, if so, recommend appropriate disciplinary action.
A sergeant and four detention officers involved in the incident remain on temporary assignments that do not involve contact with inmates.
What happened
Alexis Jovany Cardenas died while being escorted out of the Harris County Jail on July 8, 2025.
Cardenas had been in custody since Sunday, July 6, when the Houston Police Department arrested him on multiple outstanding municipal misdemeanor warrants.
Video footage from the jail shows a detention officer opening a door for Cardenas to leave at about 12:50 a.m. on July 8. Cardenas appears to point at his phone before a struggle begins.
During the altercation, Cardenas was dragged, and his pants were removed. One detention officer was pulled to the ground, and another deployed a Taser. Authorities said Cardenas then forced his way into another secure area of the jail where other inmates were awaiting release.
Several detention officers ultimately restrained him on the ground for about eight minutes before realizing he was unresponsive.
Cardenas was transported to St. Joseph Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:57 a.m.
The medical examiner ruled Cardenas’ manner of death a homicide. The report lists the primary cause of death as cardiac dysrhythmia. It also notes the toxic effects of multiple drugs in his system, along with physical and electrical restraint, as contributing factors.
Lauren Bonds, an attorney representing the family of Cardenas and executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, responds to the decision:
“Deputies at the Harris County Jail turned old traffic tickets into a death sentence for our client, Alexis Jovany Cardenas, who should never have been there in the first place. The grand jury’s refusal to issue indictments does not exonerate the officers, the Sheriff’s Department, or the jail. It is, itself, an indictment of our system. A system that believes law enforcement officers can do no wrong, and that every person killed by the police deserved it. The Harris County Jail is notorious for systemic violence and in-custody deaths. Sheriff Ed Gonzalez has known about these problems for years, and covered them up instead of fixing them. The greater Houston community is simply not safe when officers of the law are allowed to kill us with impunity.”
She continued, “Alexis Jovany Cardenas was a son, father, husband, and friend. He didn’t lose his humanity when he was arrested. He didn’t lose his humanity when he told police he couldn’t be released at 1AM with a dead phone. He wanted to live. The officers who killed him and Sheriff Gonzalez — who has repeatedly minimized, covered up, and excused this behavior — must be held accountable. We are moving forward with our civil case and will keep fighting until Mr. Cardenas, his family, and the residents of Harris County achieve transparency and a measure of justice, and the deaths at the Harris County Jail end.”