Man who died by suicide at Tarrant County Jail needed mental health care, family says
Prior to his suicide in jail, there were plenty of clues that Dean Ray Stewart, 50, suffered from serious mental instability, his brother said.
Documentation from police bears that out.
Family members contend that police were aware of their relative’s mental problems, and should have taken him someplace where he could have received appropriate mental health treatment or monitored him more closely while he was in the Tarrant County Jail.
“He didn’t have his medication,” Dean Stewart’s brother Kerry Stewart told the Star-Telegram. “It wasn’t like he was a crazy person. When he was on his medication, you would never know. How could they, why would they have put someone in jail knowing that this was his situation?”
Dean Stewart was pronounced dead on April 26, and the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office listed his cause of death as hanging and the manner of death as suicide. He was arrested on April 5, a suspect in a road rage shooting where the victim was uninjured, police records say.
The Texas Rangers have concluded their investigation into Stewart’s suicide, which did not lead to any arrests, according to Lonny Haschel, Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman. The Star-Telegram has requested a copy of the Texas Rangers’ report but hasn’t received it as of Thursday.
The Texas Commission on Jail Standards revoked the Tarrant County Jail’s certification for six days because the investigation into Stewart’s death determined officers were late making an observation check, according to the Sheriff’s Office and the commission.
“They were found to have not conducted 30-minute face-to-face observation checks, which are required in certain areas of the jail,” said Brandon Wood, executive director of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards.
State and local officials haven’t said exactly how much time passed between officers’ checks on Stewart. The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Thursday that Stewart’s suicide “is still under investigation procedurally.”
“Our own review and the review by Jail Standards revealed a late required observation check,” the Sheriff’s Office said. “We take this very seriously and the internal investigation is ongoing. Because of the missed check, we were found to be out of compliance with Jail Standards on May 21, 2020. This is a routine response by TCJS when standards in a jail are found to be out of compliance. We submitted a strong plan of action to resolve the issue immediately and TCSO was re-certified as of May 27, 2020, meeting our required standards.”
The Star-Telegram requested a copy of the plan of action but hasn’t received it.
Wood said the state also is investigating an incident that occurred in mid-May, the day a baby was born in the jail. He declined to say if the investigation was about the birth.
The Sheriff’s Office said the pregnant inmate was in a medical cell alone and didn’t tell officers when she went into labor. A corrections officer soon discovered the baby had been born and “immediate action was taken to protect the mother and child,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
Signs of mental illness, ‘paranoid schizophrenia’
Dean Stewart exhibited several signs of mental instability during his interview with police the day he was arrested. The 50-year-old was accused of and admitted to shooting at a driver he believed worked for another man who was torturing people, according to an interview with a Euless Police Department investigator.
Dean Stewart told police that helicopters and drones were following and listening to him, the police report said. Stewart said he believed that people and listening devices were hidden in his house, the report said.
Dean Stewart also told the Euless police officer who interviewed him after his arrest that government drones were being used to spread viruses, including the coronavirus, and that he had encouraged authorities to test the area where he lived for radiation, but that no one would listen, the report said.
Police from two other departments recorded multiple encounters with Dean Stewart, according to the Euless police report.
Haltom City police officers took Dean Stewart in for mental health evaluations at least four times in 2019, said Eric Peters, Haltom City police spokesman. During one of those encounters, a shotgun Dean fired into the attic of his mother’s residence was confiscated, Peters said.
“I had to go up and fix my mom’s roof after that,” Kerry Stewart remembered. “He (Dean Stewart) would call me early in the morning and tell me to come over and bring my gun. He said there were people hiding in the attic that were trying to get him.”
North Richland Hills police officers also reported multiple encounters with Dean Stewart. One encounter on Aug. 31, 2018, involved a gun seizure and an emergency mental health detention, a police report said. According to the report supplement, Dean Stewart received a diagnosis of major depression with psychotic features from John Peter Smith Hospital medical professionals.
During a search of Dean Stewart’s vehicle, officers found a .45-caliber handgun and two loaded magazines which were seized.
A North Richland Hills officer wrote in his report that Dean Stewart was fired by an employer who met resistance after trying to get him mental health help. One family member also said that Dean Stewart resisted seeking mental health treatment, according to the report.
The report said that a family member told a police officer that Dean Stewart had been addicted to methamphetamine in the past and was taking Ritalin, which he had never needed before.
“He and his address are both flagged for officer safety,” the report said.
In July 2018, an officer met Dean Stewart at a Quik Trip near his apartment on a suspicious circumstance call, a police report said. Dean Stewart told the officer that the company where he was an accountant was laundering money with members of MS-13, and that he feared for his life, according to the report.
Later the report says Dean Stewart told the officer he was being watched by cartel members, but that he kept a gun on his night stand and took it in the car with him so he could be ready for them when they came.
“He is demonstrating signs of paranoid schizophrenia,” the officer wrote in his report.
Earlier, Dean Stewart said he is not schizophrenic, but “knows he is paranoid,” the report said.
In 2018 and 2019, North Richland Hills officers had five encounters with Dean Stewart, according to police documents.
“They (police) knew about my brother’s situation,” Kerry Stewart said. “They had to know.”
Road rage shooting
The victim in Dean Stewart’s alleged aggravated assault with a deadly weapon case called 911 about 4:45 p.m. on April 5 and said that he believed he was being followed by a man wearing a black mask. Dispatch told the caller to drive to the police station, according to the report.
Moments later, the man said his car had been rammed by a Ford Fusion and that the driver had shot at him, said Brenda Alvarado, Euless police spokeswoman.
“He (the victim) came to the station to report what happened and one of our officers found the suspect vehicle a short distance away from where the incident occurred,” Alvarado said.
Prior to being locked up, Dean Stewart was asked if he had ever been treated for or diagnosed with a mental illness or if he had ever thought about or tried to commit suicide, the report said. Dean Stewart was asked a series of medical and mental health questions on the day he was arrested, and he answered “no” to all, according to Euless Police Department records.
But the day after his arrest, investigators were told by Dean Stewart’s former leasing agent that the alleged victim of the road rage assault lived in Dean Stewart’s apartment building and that Stewart had been evicted in November 2018 due to “excessive calls to police concerning his paranoid activity,” Euless police records show.
‘That was my only brother’
His brother, Kerry Stewart, has many questions about Dean Stewart’s suicide.
It was his understanding that his brother was on the mental health pod during his time at the Tarrant County Jail, Kerry Stewart said. The specialty area has room for 48 inmates, according to the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office.
Citing ongoing investigations, the Sheriff’s Office and the Texas Rangers have declined to comment on where in the jail Dean Stewart was housed, what he used to hang himself or how he obtained something that he could hang himself with.
If his brother was in the mental health pod like Kerry Stewart said he believes, jailer checks are required at 15- or 30-minute intervals, according to state jail standards, Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Lt. Jennifer Gabbert wrote in an email.
“However, we try to exceed this by doing them more frequently,” Gabbert’s email said.
Kerry Stewart said he would also like to know how his brother was able to kill himself while inside the jail.
“I’ve never dealt with anything like this, nor should anyone have to,” Kerry Stewart said. “There are so many unknowns. There are so many things that don’t seem to make sense.”
And the brother said he never got a story that was satisfied him regarding the assault that landed Dean Stewart in jail.
“My brother was a very smart guy and he was in accounting for years and had done some government accounting,” Kerry Stewart said. “That was my only brother.”
Kerry Stewart said that his brother had some issues with drugs in the past. Dean Stewart was convicted on a driving while intoxicated charge in 2013 and was sentenced to 120 days in jail and 18 months’ probation.
Dean Stewart hurt his back painting houses, his brother said. His consistent pain may have contributed to a desire to be medicated, Kerry Stewart said.
“I have personally taken him to a rehab facility. I think he was addicted to pain pills, but that still doesn’t mean suicide.” Kerry Stewart said. “I don’t know of any of his associates who would have given him a gun.”
Although their investigation was closed as of Thursday, officials with the Texas Rangers have declined to comment concerning Dean Stewart’s jail status or whether he was on suicide watch.
‘As happy and as calm as anything’
Jimmy Ray Stewart said the last time that he saw his son, Dean Stewart, was about a month before Tarrant County officials say he killed himself.
His son seemed happy and his suicide remains a shock, the 79-year-old father said.
The father said his son prepared dinner for him and his wife the last time they met.
Dean Stewart “went and got the groceries and came in and fixed dinner for us and he was all right,” the father said. “He was perfectly fine, as happy and as calm as anything. ... I really don’t know what happened. None of the stuff I’m hearing makes any sense.”
Jimmy Stewart said he has not heard much about the investigation into his son’s suicide or the aggravated assault that landed him in jail and is waiting for more information. During the nearly three weeks when Dean Stewart was in jail, family members said they did not have access to him due to the restrictions Tarrant County officials imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Dean Stewart had gone through some things in the past, a divorce 10 years ago, drug issues, but nothing that gave any forewarning that his suicide was imminent, family members said.
“He really loved his kids and whatever he had he would spend it on them,” Jimmy Stewart said. “But he never got his family back together.”
This story was originally published May 29, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Man who died by suicide at Tarrant County Jail needed mental health care, family says."
