Footage still missing from Tarrant jail death case file, state agency says
Three months after requesting video from the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office, the state’s jail regulatory agency still does not have three minutes of footage missing from a Tarrant County jail death case file.
The Texas Commission on Jail Standards “does not have the missing three minutes of footage” in the documentation submitted by the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office for Chasity Bonner, who died in the jail in May, said program specialist Alyssa McMahon in response to a recent open records request for the missing footage.
The Star-Telegram discovered the footage was not included in security camera video obtained through an open records request in April. It consists of the three minutes immediately preceding the medical emergency that resulted in Bonner’s death in her cell in the Tarrant County Corrections Center in downtown Fort Worth on May 27, 2024.
Security cameras are not required in general population areas of the jail, where the footage was taken, the Sheriff’s Office told the Star-Telegram in May. But the department “goes above and beyond expectations” by installing cameras in these parts of the jail. The Sheriff’s Office included the footage in the case file sent to the jail commission to confirm jailers checked Bonner’s cell, a spokesperson said.
Brandon Wood, the jail commission’s executive director, asked the Sheriff’s Office to turn over the footage in early May, but that request appears to have gone unfulfilled. Wood did not respond to multiple emails and phone calls asking if the commission would take action regarding the missing footage in the intervening months.
The jail commission is the state agency that reviews custody death investigations and monitors jail conditions to ensure that they adhere to minimum standards. The commission has the authority to deem county jails out of compliance with state standards over administrative issues.
The Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Sheriff’s Office in May told the Star-Telegram there is “no missing critical video evidence” in Bonner’s case file.
LaMonica Bratton, Bonner’s mother, said the sheriff’s failure to submit the footage makes her believe there is “something incriminating” on the missing video.
“If there’s no missing critical footage, then where the [expletive] is that three minutes?” she said in an interview. “Prove to me and my family and her children that there’s nothing crucial on that three minutes.”
The situation has left her family “an emotional wreck,” Bratton said.
The state agency’s lack of oversight in cases like Bonner’s is “alarming,” said Krishnaveni Gundu, executive director of Texas Jail Project, a group that advocates for jail reform.
“If even the jail commission cannot access essential video in a jail death, what hope do we have for grieving families and communities who deserve transparency from their highest elected public safety official — the Sheriff?” she said in a written exchange.
For Bratton, the missing footage is part of a larger pattern of irregularities in her daughter’s case that she believes are meant to keep her from learning the truth of what happened to her.
“It is ridiculous, because all of this stuff — the fact that they took so long to release her medical records, or autopsies, all of this stuff,” she said, reiterating her belief that the Sheriff’s Office is “stalling” the release of information in Bonner’s case.
After asking Bonner’s family to withdraw their request for her autopsy in September 2024, the county appealed to the Texas Attorney General’s Office to withhold the document.
The Star-Telegram later obtained Bonner’s autopsy report through a records request to the jail commission. It contained a recommendation that her immediate family seek medical attention about a possible genetic condition.
The jail commission and the Fort Worth Police Department, which performed a review of the Sheriff’s Office’s investigation, originally told the Star-Telegram they did not have the security camera footage mentioned in written reports in Bonner’s case file.
Immediately after publication of these statements in April, both agencies changed their statements to say the Sheriff’s Office had sent them the footage. The police department said the reviewing officer received the video but did not watch it.
The jail commission then gave the Star-Telegram the security camera footage it had received from the Sheriff’s Office, which was found to lack the three minutes immediately preceding the medical emergency that resulted in Bonner’s death.
This story was originally published August 6, 2025 at 4:25 PM.
