Editor's note: Some viewers may find the attached video disturbing.
Cyntha Garcia is described by her family as a shy and loving woman who enjoyed spending time with family and finding peace outdoors.
They also said she suffered from mental illness and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Garcia died in 2022 while in the custody of the Kleberg County Sheriff's Office and just over 24 hours after her mother called 9-1-1 for help.
Now, her family is suing Kleberg County and Christus Spohn Hospital Kleberg.
6 Investigates obtained and reviewed hours of body camera and surveillance video. Those videos show the events leading up to Garcia's death.
"A case like this has liability written all over it," said Michele Deitch, director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin.
The Prison and Jail Innovation Lab is a policy resource center focused on the safe and humane treatment of people in custody.
Court records show Garcia's mother called for help after the 32-year-old woman overdosed on medication used to treat her schizophrenia. The Falfurrias resident was taken by ambulance to Christus Spohn Hospital Kleberg.
"Every single institution failed her," said Krish Gundu, co-founder of the Texas Jail Project, a non-profit that advocates for people in county jails. "The medication she used to try to commit suicide was her mental health medication for her schizophrenia so that's very different than someone overdosing on pills."
According to court records, and body camera footage, Garcia was not compliant with medical health professionals and was mildly resistant to treatment, that court filing adding these behaviors are common symptoms with the medication taken.
That day, hospital staff called the Kingsville Police Department for help, they said Garcia had grabbed the arms of two nurses attempting to take vitals.
Body camera footage shows several officers from the department responding to the call, one officer asking medical staff if they were okay and if they wanted to press charges. That officer also asked if they were injured, nurses responded "no."
Everything about this case is textbook example of what not to do.
Garcia had been seen in the emergency room previously for suicide attempts, including a visit earlier that month.
Dean Malone, the family's attorney, said given these previous visits, hospital staff knew of her suicidal ideations.
The body camera footage also shows a Kingsville Police Officer questioning whether Garcia is okay to be released and unsure of whether she could be booked into the Kleberg County Jail.
"I wouldn't mind doing it to get her out of here, but is the jail gonna take her? She's passed out and we're gonna have to come right back here," this officer said to another.
Despite this officer's concerns, the emergency room's treating physician medically cleared Garcia to leave the hospital. At the time of this incident, that physician did not hold any emergency medicine board certifications.
"She doesn't look like she's in any condition to walk," one officer said.
"Yeah, they actually medically cleared her," another responded.
Gundu said Garcia's mental state at the time of jail booking was problematic.
"You could see from the booking paperwork she couldn't answer any of the questions," she said. "She was in no state so why did the jail decide to book her? Why did the hospital decide to discharge her and why did the jail decide to book her?"
Body camera and surveillance video that when Garcia arrived at the jail, transported by a Kingsville Police Officer, she appeared to be barely conscious. That officer indicated this was not an uncommon occurrence.
"They brought her over from Fal (Falfurrias) by ambulance and then they dumped it on us. They always do that. And I'm surprised they cleared her," the officer tells jailers.
After arriving at the jail, Garcia remains in the car for nearly an hour as jailers determine how they will transfer her.
She is unable to fully respond, walk, or exit the car on her own as a jailer yells and others stand by and laugh.
Ultimately, it takes six jailers and a police officer to transfer Garcia from the patrol vehicle to a wheelchair.
Wheeled to a padded cell, she falls to the floor, is stripped of her hospital gown, and the door is shut, all while jailers continue to make jokes.
"It's never the light ones," an officer said.
"I'm gonna have to call in tomorrow, my back hurts," another jailer said.
Gundu calling this behavior degrading and dehumanizing.
"People with serious mental illness who go seeking care are instead criminalized for their behavior or symptoms arising from behavior," she said. "But criminalization at the place of care is something that's the real tragedy in this story because it's not uncommon. I mean how absolutely degrading and dehumanizing."
Surveillance video shows jailers observing Garcia through a window in the cell every 15 to 20 minutes. None of those checks involve medical intervention until a few hours later.
"Everything about this case is textbook example of what not to do," Deitch said. "When someone's on active suicide watch they need to be monitored continuously not just every 15-20 minutes and that involves much more than setting eyes on the person. It involves some kind of engagement, talking to the person, finding out if they're okay, seeing what their needs are and trying to get those needs met."
The jail's nurse, realizing something was wrong, sounded the alarm later that afternoon and she and the jailers began CPR.
An ambulance is called and Garcia is treated for several minutes before it leaves.
Garcia is ultimately transferred to Christus Spohn Hospital Shoreline, dying the next day.
"When she was at the hospital acting out and no one questioned it, that's not criminal behavior. She didn't have the intent to act out. She should have never gone to the jail. And having gone to the jail she should have never been admitted," Deitch said.
A medical examiner determined Garcia died from complications due to combined drug abuse and listed the manner of death as suicide.
"If you cannot trust your local law enforcement to keep you safe especially if you're in such a vulnerable state, who can you trust? If you cannot trust your healthcare provider to provide the very basic minimum care, then who can you trust?" Gundu asked.
KRIS 6 News asked Kleberg County Sheriff Richard Kirkpatrick about these videos and the pending lawsuit.
He said when the incident occurred, it was turned over to the Texas Rangers and they found no criminal wrongdoing on behalf of the county.
"Allowing someone to die when in someone's custody, that's the whole point of being in somebody's custody, it means you're fully responsible for them. And allowing someone to die, I mean, in my opinion, that's still a murder," Gundu said.
The civil lawsuit filed by Garcia's mother is pending.
Meanwhile, the Texas Association of Counties is representing Kleberg County and it will perform its own investigation. Kleberg County Judge Rudy Madrid declined to comment given pending litigation.
In a statement, Christus Spohn Health System declined to comment on the pending litigation.
