A gay man died in a Texas jail after officials failed to give him his prescribed medicine.
On March 13, Jesse Jacobs—who was serving a 30-day sentence for driving while intoxicated—suffered a seizure and was rushed to the hospital from the Galveston County Jail. He was pronounced dead in the emergency room.
Jacobs, 32, was detoxing from Xanax, which he’d taken for a decade to treat anxiety. He brought his Xanex with him when he checked into jail on March 6, but jail staffers did not administer it while he was incarcerated.
“I’m angry,” says Jacobs’ father, Jesse Sr, from KTRK-TV. “Because as far as I’m concerned, they executed my son just as sure as if they put a gun to his head and pull the trigger.”
His mom, Diane, says Jesse was concerned he might not get his medication. “He told us, ‘Mom what will happen, if I don’t receive this?’”
The Galveston County coroner’s office declared Jacobs died from a seizure, but the jail was cleared of any wrongdoing.
“Whatever the doctor, the internal doctor said he was prescribed, was what he was given,” said Sheriff Henry Trochesset. “Individuals come into the jail all the time. Some of them are taking medications that they shouldn’t be, or they say they’re suppose to be on certain medications.”
Sheriff Trochesset insists Jacobs’ family is “trying to throw some red flag into the air that we apparently did something to him — when he just died of natural causes in jail.”
But, Dr. D.M. La Grone, who treated Jesse Jacobs, insists the seizure was caused by being deprived of his Xanax. An attorney for the Jacobs family’ reported that the pill bottle he brought with him to jail was never opened.
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