Anthony Jr., a 31-year-old Marine Corps veteran, lived with schizophrenia, his mother said to the crowd of more than 80 people on Sunday.<\/p>\n
![\"Jacqualyne](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_3817.jpg\" "\\"IMG_3817.jpg\\"")
Jacqualyne Johnson and Anthony Johnson Sr. at the rally on Sunday, March 1, in downtown Fort Worth. Shambhavi Rimal srimal@star-telegram.com <\/p>\n
Jacqualyne Johnson said she took her son to a psychiatric facility during a schizophrenic episode, but they turned him away. \u201cThey said he was not a danger to himself or anyone else,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they (the facility) had kept him for even 24 hours evaluation, my son might still be alive today,\u201d Jacqualyne Johnson said.<\/p>\n
Later that day, on the evening of April 19, 2024, Anthony Jr. was arrested by Saginaw police .<\/p>\n
At the jail, she said, \u201cMy son begged for his life. He said he couldn\u2019t breathe twice. And the people responsible for protecting him, the people that we paid with our tax dollars, failed him at every step.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anthony Johnson Jr. with his mother, Jacqualyne. Courtesy of the Johnson family <\/p>\n
Moreno, who was shown on the video kneeling on Johnson\u2019s back, and Garcia, who was a supervisor, were charged with murder and fired by the Sheriff\u2019s Office. They have pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n
A pretrial hearing that had been scheduled for Tuesday, March 3, was postponed and reset for September. Johnson\u2019s family hopes the trial will start in the fall of 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo years of delays while the men indicted for my son\u2019s murder sit comfortably at home with their ankle bracelets,\u201d Jacqualyne Johnson said.<\/p>\n
After the family filed a lawsuit, Tarrant County has spent over $600,000 of taxpayers\u2019 money<\/a> to defend the jailers involved in the death of her son, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt took less than 24 hours to take my son\u2019s life, but somehow it takes hundreds and thousands of dollars, to defend the people responsible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Jacqualyne Johnson pointed at the Ten Commandments monument on the right side of the courthouse, and said the meaning of the commandments \u201cis to treat others the same with the same care and respect you want for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo I ask you all, as a mother, what would you do if you saw the death of your child on a video<\/a>? Would you not fight? \u201d Jacqualyne Johnson said. \u201cCould you rest at all with the video looping in your mind that me and my husband have to go to sleep with every night when we close our eyes and we see my son taking his last breath?\u201d<\/p>\n Jacqualyne Johnson said mental illness is real and it can happen to anyone at any time. \u201cWe are not going anywhere. We will not be silent, and we will be here every meeting, every microphone, every election, until Tarrant County has leadership for all the other people who live here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe agony placed on my family is the result of a system that has grown comfortable abusing, neglecting and killing the very people it cannot control,\u201d father Anthony Johnson Sr. said.<\/p>\n \u201cSince Sheriff (Bill) Waybourn was elected, from 2017 to 2025, more than 70 people have died in Tarrant County Jail,\u201d Anthony Johnson Sr. said. \u201cMore than 70 families destroyed, more than 70 futures stolen.\u201d<\/p>\n Sheriff\u2019s Office says jail deaths are declining<\/p>\n Waybourn has defended safety at the jail. A Sheriff\u2019s Office report<\/a> puts Tarrant County\u2019s jail deaths in the context of other Texas counties. The report notes that Tarrant County Jail has a daily average population of 4,300 inmates, with capacity for up to 5,015 inmates. Tarrant County\u2019s 73 inmate deaths<\/a> since 2017 were less than the 109 in Bexar County, which encompasses San Antonio and has a similar jail capacity as Tarrant County, according to the report.<\/p>\n There have also been fewer inmate deaths in Tarrant County than in Dallas and Harris counties, although those county jails have more capacity \u2014 7,552 beds in Dallas County and 10,466 beds in Harris County, the report shows. According to the report, there were 77 jail deaths in Dallas County between 2017 and 2025 and 140 in Harris County during that time frame.<\/p>\n \u201cThese deaths have increasingly been framed as a political issue, but the reality is we\u2019re dealing with a medical and behavioral health crisis,\u201d Waybourn said in the report. \u201cThis isn\u2019t just a Tarrant County problem, Sheriff\u2019s statewide are facing the same challenges as they manage a high-needs population in facilities never designed to function as healthcare or mental health institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the Sheriff\u2019s Office, half of all individuals entering the county\u2019s jails have chronic health conditions and about 65% \u201cpresent with some form of mental health challenge<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n In a January statement noting that the death rate declined in 2026, the Sheriff\u2019s Office said, \u201cThe downward trend reflects ongoing efforts to improve medical response, mental health support, and overall care for individuals housed in the jail.\u201d<\/p>\n Families want their voices heard<\/p>\n Cassandra Johnson, the mother of Trelynn Wormley<\/a>, was at Sunday\u2019s rally holding her son\u2019s football helmet and a large canvas filled with his pictures.<\/p>\n \u201cTrelynn loved football \u2014 as long as he was on that field, he was happy, he was stable, and he wore that big Kool-Aid smile,\u201d his mother said.<\/p>\n Cassandra Johnson broke down in tears as she said, \u201cI started driving to Austin to let my voice be heard.\u201d<\/p>\n Wormley, 23, was found unresponsive in his cell on July 20, 2022. The medical examiner ruled that he died of a fentanyl overdose. Aaliyah Lyles, a former commissary employee at the Tarrant County Jail, was arrested and charged with smuggling drugs into the facility<\/a> around the time of Wormley\u2019s death, the Star-Telegram previously reported.<\/p>\n Lyles was sentenced in 2024 to 10 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to a second-degree felony charge of delivery of a controlled substance, according to Tarrant County court records.<\/p>\n Chasity Bonner died in the Tarrant County Jail on May 27, 2024. The medical examiner ruled her death the result of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, or hardened arteries, possibly due to a hereditary disorder. But her family has questioned the cause of death, saying she had no history of heart problems, the Star-Telegram reported.<\/p>\n \u201cI am here because our family has been forced to fight the truth about my 34-year-old daughter at the time, a woman who should still be alive,\u201d mother LaMonica Bratton said. \u201cWe were told that she died from natural causes, but nothing about her death has been natural, not the timeline, not the secrecy, not the way that this system has treated her.\u201d<\/p>\n Allowing someone to die from neglect is not a natural cause, it\u2019s negligence inside the jail, which is a violation of public trust, Bratton said.<\/p>\n A Star-Telegram investigation revealed that three minutes of video was missing<\/a> from the footage of Chasity\u2019s death.<\/p>\n \u201cSo let me be clear, Chasity deserved medical attention. She deserved compassion. She deserved a chance to live and now we, her family, deserve answers,\u201d Bratton said. \u201cWe deserve truth and accountability. We will not stop until we get it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happened to her is not an isolation failure. It is a pattern of neglect, secrecy and leadership that refuses to take responsibility, while families like mine are left to bury our loved ones with no more questions than answered,\u201d Bratton said.<\/p>\n The mothers and several community members hugged each other as they continued to ask for answers about their children\u2019s deaths.<\/p>\n ![\"Families](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_3823.jpg\" "\\"IMG_3823.jpg\\"")
Families and community members rallied outside the Tarrant County Courthouse on Sunday, March 1, as they called on county leaders for accountability after loved ones died in the jail. Shambhavi Rimal srimal@star-telegram.com <\/p>\n Cassandra Johnson, second from right, and others protest outside the Tarrant County Jail in downtown Fort Worth on July 25, 2022. Johnson\u2019s son, Trelynn Wormley, 23, died while in custody at the Tarrant County Jail. Amanda McCoy amccoy@star-telegram.com <\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_2011.jpg\" "\\"IMG_2011.jpg\\"")
LaMonica Bratton (right) and other family members and friends mourn the loss of Chasity Bonner at a balloon release in a park in east Fort Worth on May 31, 2024. Bonner died in the Tarrant County Jail on May 27. CODY COPELAND ccopeland@star-telegram.com <\/p>\n![\"Families](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_3802.jpg\" "\\"IMG_3802.jpg\\"")
Families and community members rallied outside the Tarrant County Courthouse on Sunday, March 1, as they called on county leaders for accountability after loved ones died in the jail. Shambhavi Rimal srimal@star-telegram.com
\n Related Stories from Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n