Galveston County Daily News, Jan. 17, 2008
The state Senate will convene a hearing next week into the death of an inmate last year at the University of Texas Medical Branch. However, the medical branch on Wednesday released a statement saying that Huntsville Memorial Hospital failed to diagnose the inmate's broken neck. He was transferred to the medical branch only after his condition had deteriorated for days, the statement said.
Legislature to investigate death of inmate
By Marty Schladen
The Daily News Published January 17, 2008 GALVESTON - The state Senate will convene a hearing next week into the death of an inmate last year at the University of Texas Medical Branch.
However, the medical branch on Wednesday released a statement saying that Huntsville Memorial Hospital failed to diagnose the inmate's broken neck. He was transferred to the medical branch only after his condition had deteriorated for days, the statement said.
The Senate Criminal Justice Committee has scheduled a hearing into the death next Thursday.
The medical branch has a special unit where prison inmates receive care.
Larry Louis Cox, 48, died there on Feb. 6.
According to his autopsy report, Cox had stitches in his forehead and his cheek, a swollen brain and two broken vertebrae in his neck when he died. The report ruled the death a homicide, the result of "medical neglect complicating blunt-force trauma."
Stephen Pustilnik, Galveston County's chief medical examiner, said his office came to that conclusion after a joint investigation with the inspector general of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. But Pustilnik said he couldn't discuss the investigation because the federal government might open a probe into Cox's death.
State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, is chairman of the Criminal Justice Committee. He has asked the FBI to look into the death, according to news reports.
Cox was housed in Huntsville's Estelle Unit when he was injured.
He refused to leave his cell so it could be fumigated. He was hurt when guards forced him from the cell, according to the statement by the medical branch.
Cox was first taken to Huntsville Memorial Hospital.
"Although he did receive a CT scan, the neck fractures were not found," the statement by the medical branch said. "Over the next two days, the patient's condition deteriorated until a call was made asking for support from the UTMB hospital in Galveston. The patient was transferred to UTMB, where it was determined he had suffered three broken vertebrae and a spinal fracture. Sadly, he died a few days later."
Huntsville Memorial didn't return a call seeking comment.
The Walker County district attorney presented Cox's death to a grand jury, which declined to indict anyone, according to news reports.
Cox was sentenced to 20 years in 1990 after being convicted in Harris County of burglary of a habitation with intent to commit sexual assault, said Jason Clark, a spokesman for the department of criminal justice. Cox was sentenced to another 15 years for murder in 1998 after killing his cellmate at the Stiles Unit in Beaumont, Clark said.