Family, attorneys of man who died in police custody in west Houston file suit

Lakita Carr, right, comforts Angelina Leffyear after a press conference on the steps of the Harris County Civil Courthouse Tuesday, June 5, 2018, in Houston. Carr's 21-year-old son Darrall Thomas died in police custody May 31, 2016. Leffyear and Thomas were engaged for a year when he died. The family has filed a suit against Spring Valley Village, Hedwig Village, Bunker Hill Village, Piney Point Village, Hunters Creek Village, Spring Branch ISD and several of their police officers. less Lakita Carr, right, comforts Angelina Leffyear after a press conference on the steps of the Harris County Civil Courthouse Tuesday, June 5, 2018, in Houston. Carr's 21-year-old son Darrall Thomas died in police ... more Photo: Godofredo A. Vasquez, Houston Chronicle Photo: Godofredo A. Vasquez, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Family, attorneys of man who died in police custody in west Houston file suit 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

The family of a man who died while in the custody of the Hedwig Village police department in 2016 has sued that agency and others, alleging excessive force caused his death.

Police detained Darrall Thomas, 21, on May 31, 2016, after he and two others allegedly tried to steal an ATM in west Houston. Police said he ran and hid from police, after which he was arrested and hoisted into an ambulance by a stretcher. He died at the hospital.

The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences ruled Thomas died from a drug overdose and heart disease, but relatives maintain those findings are inconsistent with the circumstances of that night.

The family’s attorney, Randall Kallinen, said Tuesday that law enforcement reports conflict with a private medical examiner’s findings, which show that Thomas received abrasions on his body sometime that night.



“We do know that the official story is not the right story,” Kallinen said at a news conference attended by Thomas’ family members at the Harris County Civil Courthouse downtown.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Family questions cause of son's death

As he was being detained, he was Tased by officers and tossed down a hill, according to the suit.

And while the Harris County medical examiner ruled that drugs contributed to the death, the family said, "a more experienced private medical examiner hired by the family conclusively rules out drugs as a cause of death."

Hedwig Village police have not responded to requests for comment. Three other departments contacted had no comment.

While none of the abrasions found on Thomas were enough to cause death by blunt force trauma, cuts from the handcuffs show that a struggle or a “point of leverage” occurred where police would have lifted up Thomas, the private report states.

"The police reports, they really don’t explain any force being used on him at all,” said Umeka Lewis, an attorney for the family. “There was abrasions on his body. There was indication that he was found in a ditch. We don’t know how that happened.”

The attorneys acknowledged at the news conference that they don’t have the full account of what happened on May 31, 2016.

Around 2 a.m., Hedwig Village officers responded to a security alarm at the Bank of America branch in the 8700 block of Katy Freeway. Officers from the Spring Valley, Memorial Village, and Spring Branch ISD police departments responded, and three men fled on foot, authorities said at the time.

Thomas was found in a culvert. Firefighters eventually lifted him into an ambulance, supine and handcuffed, because of slippery conditions, authorities said. His breathing was labored, and authorities performed CPR.

The official autopsy concluded that the manner of death was an "accident" caused by the "acute toxic effects of amphetamine" and "cathinone" - a synthetic stimulant known as "bath salts." A lab report states that Thomas was obese with "hypertensive cardiovascular disease," had a low level of amphetamine and denoted the bath salts as "present."

Attorneys said Thomas had no history of asthma and was a healthy man, despite technically weighing enough to be considered obese.

An independent analysis by Autopsy Forensic Services in Chandler, Ariz., and the Pennsylvania-based NMS Labs found a "minimal" amount of amphetamine that "would not cause the death of Darrall Thomas" and listed a forehead wound believed to be evidence of "blunt force trauma." The report lists the cause of death as undetermined, but notes that "one cannot rule out asphyxia."

Thomas’ mother, Nakita Carr, said her son didn’t do drugs. And since the arrest and following his death, Thomas’ attorneys have questioned whether Thomas was even robbing an ATM in the first place.

“We were able to actually find out that there is no evidence that her son was actually involved in the robbery of this ATM,” Lewis said.

The family has sought $1 million in damages. Thomas had a son, now 2, who asks about his father frequently, said Angelina Leffyear, Thomas’ girlfriend at the time of his death.

“It’s been very life-changing for me,” Leffyear said. “It’s been two years, but it doesn’t seem like it’s been getting easier.”

Elizabeth Myong contributed to this report.