Autopsy in jail death reexamined after Star-Telegram report

Tarrant County’s chief medical examiner will review the 2019 autopsy of Robert Miller, an inmate whose cause of death after being pepper-sprayed in jail was the subject of a Star-Telegram investigation published last week. Miller was found unresponsive in his cell less than an hour after sheriff’s officers pepper-sprayed him three times, and he died about 12 hours later. A county medical examiner, Richard Fries, ruled he died of natural causes from a sickle cell crisis. The Star-Telegram investigation found that Miller did not have the disease. The review of the autopsy will be by Chief Medical Examiner Kendall Crowns, who was hired in December and was not involved in the 2019 Miller case. The action came at the request of county Commissioner Roy Brooks after he read the Star-Telegram’s investigation. Brooks announced his request during Tuesday’s commissioner meeting, where nine criminal justice advocates spoke about their concerns.

“I, too, am troubled by what appears to be a coverup in the death of Robert Miller,” Brooks said. “I have asked the county administrator to ask the current medical examiner, who was not the medical examiner when Robert Miller died, to take a look at the autopsy and medical records available to give court a report on his findings.” The Star-Telegram obtained jail witness statements, Miller’s hospital records and other documents that were part of an internal Texas Rangers report. The newspaper asked outside medical experts, including a pathologist and a sickle cell expert, to review the records. They told the Star-Telegram that Miller most certainly did not have sickle cell anemia and could not have died of the disease. His wife and father confirmed that Miller was not afflicted with the disease. The newspaper’s findings also question the thoroughness of Texas Ranger Trace McDonald’s investigation into Miller’s death, which was closed when the autopsy report found natural causes. Records don’t indicate whether McDonald discussed Miller’s condition with John Peter Smith Hospital, where Miller was treated and died. McDonald’s report also contained inconsistencies between the jailers’ accounts of what led to the pepper-spraying.