To: The Texas State House, The Texas State Senate, and Governor Greg Abbott
Sandy Franklin
Investigation into her death in Midland County jails custody.
Why is this important?
My baby sister, 18, died while in the custody of the Midland County Jail under the watch of the jailers.
On July 27 at approximately 10:30 pm my sister and her boyfriend were pulled over by the city police. This was a controlled stop. Her boyfriend was being watched by the narcotic's department. They knew that her boyfriend had just purchased meth. My sister had a warrant for a failure to appear on a failure to stop at a stop sign ticket. After getting to the jail, my sister swallowed 3.8 grams of meth that her boyfriend told her to. There were recorded phone calls of my sister stating "I did what you told me too, how much did I swallow?" By the next day, she was starting to feel the effects. All through the night fellow inmates begged for help; screamed at the guards to please help. My sister sat in a cell screaming and begging for them to call my mom! Repeating her phone number over and over! 5 women who have called me told the same story! At approximately 4am they removed my sister from her cell and threw her in a cold shower! At approximately 10am the girls in the cell knew she was dying! Finally at noon on the 29th of July the jail called my mother to tell her she needed to get to the jail immediately! My sister was sick and it didn't look good. Our sheriff came in at 12:25 pm to let us know they were dropping all charges so that we could get in to see my sister! Shortly thereafter they came in to let us know she was gone! We begged to see her! They made us wait another hour! For three hours we sat in a little white room as they did their paperwork while my sister died alone! I begged our sheriff a couple of months later to look through video to see if it could have been different! My sister's body had bruises everywhere. Her face was smushed down on one side! They lied and said she became aggressive when help was brought, but that makes no sense! At every turn, we have been denied information or an investigation! All we want is an investigation and if a jailer denied her medical that they are punished accordingly! I don't understand how anyone could watch as someone died! I don't understand how they, the jail, can honestly say they didn't know. What about inmate checks, bed counts, searching the inmates as they come in????? How do you not notice for three days that someone is overdosing!?!?!?!
We have hired attorneys but they are blocked each time! Please, this is our last hope! She didn't deserve to die! Her son didn't deserve to lose his mother!
Statement from a girl who was in the cell with my sister:
"She made it to population .. when before she gets back there was supposed to go through intake. Where she is supposed to sit down with a nurse.. why didn't the nurse catch her heart rate and dilated pupils?
They did an entire shift change ...
the first guard let her down while everyone was still locked down to go get in the shower. ( which isn't supposed to happen ) asking if she was detoxing ( jokingly).. and still after being told she was overdosing didn't take it seriously.
The second guard came on to shift and went back to medical 3x letting them know the problem...
The first time she came back...
Medical said she would have to wait for the nurse to come around.. Sandy told me she felt like she was passing every time she closed her eyes.. after I told the guard she didn't have that time to wait she went back and told them and came back saying she still had to wait..
after asking for a medical form that I could fill out for Sandy so she could sign it so that it would be on records is when she then went back again and came back and asked for Sandy to come with her...
After Sandy came out of a cold shower to help her burning up body (in all of her jail-issued clothing) I gave her a white shirt, a pair of socks to help her freezing feet and pulled her hair into a ponytail.
I walked her over to the guard and told her everything would be ok.. 😞"
On July 27 at approximately 10:30 pm my sister and her boyfriend were pulled over by the city police. This was a controlled stop. Her boyfriend was being watched by the narcotic's department. They knew that her boyfriend had just purchased meth. My sister had a warrant for a failure to appear on a failure to stop at a stop sign ticket. After getting to the jail, my sister swallowed 3.8 grams of meth that her boyfriend told her to. There were recorded phone calls of my sister stating "I did what you told me too, how much did I swallow?" By the next day, she was starting to feel the effects. All through the night fellow inmates begged for help; screamed at the guards to please help. My sister sat in a cell screaming and begging for them to call my mom! Repeating her phone number over and over! 5 women who have called me told the same story! At approximately 4am they removed my sister from her cell and threw her in a cold shower! At approximately 10am the girls in the cell knew she was dying! Finally at noon on the 29th of July the jail called my mother to tell her she needed to get to the jail immediately! My sister was sick and it didn't look good. Our sheriff came in at 12:25 pm to let us know they were dropping all charges so that we could get in to see my sister! Shortly thereafter they came in to let us know she was gone! We begged to see her! They made us wait another hour! For three hours we sat in a little white room as they did their paperwork while my sister died alone! I begged our sheriff a couple of months later to look through video to see if it could have been different! My sister's body had bruises everywhere. Her face was smushed down on one side! They lied and said she became aggressive when help was brought, but that makes no sense! At every turn, we have been denied information or an investigation! All we want is an investigation and if a jailer denied her medical that they are punished accordingly! I don't understand how anyone could watch as someone died! I don't understand how they, the jail, can honestly say they didn't know. What about inmate checks, bed counts, searching the inmates as they come in????? How do you not notice for three days that someone is overdosing!?!?!?!
We have hired attorneys but they are blocked each time! Please, this is our last hope! She didn't deserve to die! Her son didn't deserve to lose his mother!
Statement from a girl who was in the cell with my sister:
"She made it to population .. when before she gets back there was supposed to go through intake. Where she is supposed to sit down with a nurse.. why didn't the nurse catch her heart rate and dilated pupils?
They did an entire shift change ...
the first guard let her down while everyone was still locked down to go get in the shower. ( which isn't supposed to happen ) asking if she was detoxing ( jokingly).. and still after being told she was overdosing didn't take it seriously.
The second guard came on to shift and went back to medical 3x letting them know the problem...
The first time she came back...
Medical said she would have to wait for the nurse to come around.. Sandy told me she felt like she was passing every time she closed her eyes.. after I told the guard she didn't have that time to wait she went back and told them and came back saying she still had to wait..
after asking for a medical form that I could fill out for Sandy so she could sign it so that it would be on records is when she then went back again and came back and asked for Sandy to come with her...
After Sandy came out of a cold shower to help her burning up body (in all of her jail-issued clothing) I gave her a white shirt, a pair of socks to help her freezing feet and pulled her hair into a ponytail.
I walked her over to the guard and told her everything would be ok.. 😞"