Grand jury clears correction officer, nurse in 2019 in-custody death

TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas - A Travis County special grand jury has decided not to indict a Travis County correctional officer and a Travis County Sheriff's Office registered nurse in connection with a 2019 in-custody death.

DA José Garza announced that a Travis County special grand jury concluded its review of the in-custody death of Tyler Allen Grist involving correctional officer Alexander Antillon and registered nurse Anthony Cardinal.

The DA's office says that in July 2019, 28-year-old Tyler Allen Grist was arrested for second-degree felony arson and booked into the Travis County Correctional Complex. Over a month later, while in a single-occupancy, high risk jail cell, Grist reportedly intentionally fell backwards, causing his head to strike an elevated platform in the cell, then repeated this action two more times.

After the last fall, while lying prone on the ground, Grist continued to move certain parts of his body and continued to breathe, says the DA's office. On-duty corrections officers along with the duty nurse were conducting regularly scheduled periodic monitoring of Grist but were unaware of his actions in causing himself to fall. 

During their monitoring, the DA's office says they observed Grist lying prone and breathing with some bodily movement. Thereafter, the corrections officers entered the cell to transfer him to another unit, discovering he needed medical attention.

Corrections officers then requested emergency medical attention and treated him while waiting for EMS to arrive. EMS then transported Grist to the hospital, where he died a week later.

In October 2019, the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Grist's death as a suicide, with the cause of death being blunt head trauma, says the DA's office.

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