MÓNICA GUZMÁN, Staff
Copyright 2006 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company
All Rights Reserved
The man who died Friday two hours after being shocked by a Taser in a Harris County jail suffered from a bipolar disorder, family members said.
Daryl Dwayne Kelley, 29, collapsed in a cell at the 1200 Baker St. facility 40 minutes after a member of an Emergency Response Team used a Taser to subdue him so he could be moved to a second-floor mental health unit.
Kelley was taken to Christus St. Joseph Hospital, where he died at 4:20 p.m.
“He had a mental problem and they Tasered him,” said his mother, Pearline Kelley.
“He’s schizophrenic and he was on medication. They should have put him somewhere where they could’ve helped him.”
Harris County Sheriff’s Department Maj. Don McWilliams said that’s exactly what officers were trying to do.
Kelley had refused to take his medications and reacted violently toward the response team, he said.
“Everything was done in accordance with our training protocols,” McWilliams said.
“It is fully routine to use Tasers to move large, violent inmates.”
The 6-foot, 300-pound Kelley had transferred from the jail at 701 N. San Jacinto on Thursday after an incident in which he was “loud and disruptive” among other inmates, McWilliams said.
`Episodes’ since April
Officials informed Kelley’s family of his death about 6 p.m.
His sister, Shirley, 40, said Kelley suffered from a bipolar disorder and had been seeing a psychiatrist.
“He was a good person and a hard worker,” she said. “It was a wrongful death the way that it happened.”
Family members said Kelley had been having “episodes” since April, the month he was charged with felony auto theft after taking off in a Houston police officer’s patrol car when the officer tried to apprehend him.
According to county records of the April 13 incident, Kelley’s girlfriend flagged down the officer and told him Kelley had assaulted her and had told her “the devil was inside” her.
The officer approached Kelley and “noticed him to be in an irate, incoherent state.
"(Kelley) then laid back on the sidewalk and started mumbling statements about the `devil being inside’ of him,” the county document reads.
McWilliams said Kelley had made similar statements to jail staff.
“He was making allegations about the staff being devils and stuff like that,” McWilliams said.
Was being transferred
On Friday, after Kelley spent a restless night in a “very violent and agitated state” under observation in a padded cell, jail officials decided to transfer Kelley to the Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority unit on the second floor.
“Because of Mr. Kelley’s size and mental state, because he was very violent, a six-member Emergency Response Team responded to the scene” about 2:20 p.m., he said.
McWilliams said the team did not engage in a struggle with Kelley before using the Taser because “we really don’t want to have to fight someone that big” and risk serious injury.
When Kelley violently “rushed” the team, one of the men, who is certified to teach the use of Tasers, shocked Kelley on his lower hip and other team members got Kelley to the ground and handcuffed him, McWilliams said.
“When they used the Taser, the prongs didn’t fully connect, they caught in his clothing,” so he didn’t get the full force of the stun, McWilliams said.
Other than a small cut on Kelley’s eyebrow from hitting his head, no injuries were sustained when he was subdued. Medical staff gave him a psychotropic drug to subdue him and placed him on a gurney.
Kelley was conscious, “communicable and medically stable” when he arrived at the MHMRA unit about 10 minutes later, McWilliams said. But shortly after 3 p.m., he collapsed.
Tasers, or stun guns, shoot tiny darts attached to wires that carry a 50,000-volt electrical charge.
McWilliams said this is the first time a county inmate has died from an incident involving the use of a Taser.
Thursday’s disturbance was not the first time Kelley had been out of line. “There were lesser instances of unusual behavior,” he said, “but nothing that approached this level of violent agitation.”
Autopsy to be performed
McWilliams said Saturday that he was not aware of Kelley’s mental health history but that “nothing remarkable” had surfaced about his condition when he was first booked into system.
The exact cause of death will be determined after an autopsy by the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office.
An investigation has been opened into the incident and the six-member Emergency Response Unit has been put on stand-down, which is standard procedure after such incidents, McWilliams said.
Similar case last year
A 52-year-old mental patient died last February in Houston after Harris County Precinct 1 constable’s deputies used a Taser on him.
Though the incident was ruled a homicide, the autopsy report said Joel Casey, who had a history of heart problems, died as a result of psychotic delirium with associated hypertensive disease and did not directly cite the Taser as a factor in his death.
monica.guzman@chron.com
Mug: Daryl Dwayne Kelley
January 15, 2006