Family members of 47-year-old Rodricus Lewis, an El Dorado man who was found dead in his cell in the Union County jail late last month, are looking for answers as they await the outcome of an Arkansas State Police investigation.
The Union County Sheriff's Office and the ASP are simultaneously conducting investigations into the circumstances surrounding Lewis's death.
Both agencies have said their probes are ongoing.
Darlene Frazier and Checoata Livingston, Lewis' mother and sister, spoke with a News-Times reporter last week about his death and their wish to learn more about what happened to him in jail.
Family members were set to view Lewis' body on Dec. 8 for the first time since his death on Nov. 26.
They have not yet been given a cause of death, they said, or given any other details surrounding Lewis' state in jail.
Frazier said that she wishes her son had been granted more access to mental and physical health care instead of being kept in jail.
Lewis was arrested on Jan. 19 and faced charges including arson and first-degree terroristic threatening, according to court records.
The El Dorado Fire Department responded at 7:15 p.m. on Jan. 19 to a report of a house fire at 1019 Craig Ave.
Firefighters extinguished the blaze and during an investigation, they determined that the fire had been intentionally set.
A piece of furniture, believed to be a couch, was ignited the living room and the fire was contained in the room, firefighters said.
An occupant of the house, presumably Lewis, admitted setting the fire while other residents were inside, according to an EFD report.
Lewis was subsequently taken into custody by the El Dorado Police Department, who had been called to the scene to assist with crowd control and the investigation into the fire.
Lewis initially faced felony charges of two counts of capital murder, along with arson.
Livingston said that she was involved in the incident as a victim but loves her brother and wrote a statement speaking on her brother's behalf that she delivered to the 13th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney's Office several months after the incident.
Livingston said the family became frustrated with court procedures.
"I [saw] that he wasn't getting any court dates, and every time he had a court date we'd sit in there all day long and they would change the date," Livingston said.
The EFD report had cited "possibly mentally disabled" as a human factor that contributed to the ignition of the house fire.
According to court records, several fitness-to-proceed mental health examinations had been ordered in May and September for Lewis by Judge Jim Andrews of the 13th Judicial Circuit Court, Division 4.
In April, David Cason, Lewis's public defense attorney, submitted a motion to give notice of intent to rely on "defense of mental disease or defect" in the case.
According to Livingston and Frazier, Lewis was a Navy veteran who struggled with his mental health after his time in the service.
"It could have been anybody, it could have been me. I just want to put the word out. My mama is mourning, and it hurts me. I can't stop thinking about it and seeing him -- I keep seeing my brother for a reason and I want the word out," Livingston said.
"When you go to jail, it's for punishment -- I understand that. But it's not for abuse or neglect or starvation," she added.
'I know they want answers'
Union County Sheriff Ricky Roberts said he understands the family's frustrations and search for answers about the passing of their loved one, adding that he has met with family members and spoken to them at ""great lengths" about the matter.
"I can understand how the family feels and I know they want answers. It's a sad situation," Roberts said.
A Union County jail staff member was conducting a routine check of inmates' cells at approximately 11:15 on Nov. 26 when he saw Lewis lying unresponsive on the floor of his cell.
Lewis had been housed alone in a one-man cell, the sheriff said.
Moments later, Roberts said staff members notified him by phone about the matter.
"When they realized there was something wrong and he was unresponsive ... we have a medical staff, so we called the staff medical team and they still didn't get a response. He was gone at that point," he said.
Lewis did not have any visible injuries, Roberts said.
His body was sent to the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory in Little Rock for an autopsy.
Roberts said the UCSO is awaiting a preliminary report from the crime lab to determine the cause and manner of death.
He noted that officials from the ASCL confirmed there was no trauma to the body.
'Not a mental health institution'
The sheriff's office has launched an internal investigation into Lewis's death.
"We went back and reviewed some video and the camera system to see if anybody, our staff or any other inmate, went into the cell and from what we found, we can't give a cause of death," Roberts said, adding, "We're basically at the mercy of the crime lab to tell us what exactly happened to him and they can't give us that just yet."
Roberts expressed his own frustrations "with the system" in regard to defendants who are in need of mental health services being housed in criminal detention centers.
Like Lewis's family, Roberts said Lewis had been detained in the county jail since his arrest in January and remained there as he awaited trial and further mental health evaluations.
Roberts said Lewis had been deemed "uncooperative" following an initial evaluation and was sent back to the Union County jail for detainment.
A few other inmates are being housed in the jail under similar circumstances, the sheriff said.
When a fitness-to-proceed examination is requested for a defendant, it can sometimes take months for the Arkansas State Hospital to conduct the exam and write a report to determine if a defendant is mentally capable of moving ahead with court proceedings, Roberts said.
In the meantime, defendants often remain in the jail.
"This not a mental health institution. This is a detention facility and defendants who are deemed unfit to proceed (with a court case) are still confined to the jail," said Roberts. "We need to do something with our system to get people the help with mental health that they deserve."
He said law enforcement agencies across the state and country are experiencing similar issues and the topic has been under heavy discussion in recent years at Arkansas Sheriff's Association conferences.
"There seems to be an influx of people who are in need of mental health help being detained in jail," said Roberts.
A lack of beds and available space in mental health facilities is an oft-cited reason for housing mentally unfit inmates in local jails, Roberts said.
A possible solution that has been floated around is establishing a crisis stabilization unit in El Dorado but so far, the project has not gotten off the ground.
"They sent (Lewis) to a facility for an evaluation and maybe a treatment and he was there a couple of days," Roberts said. "Yet, it should have been known that this man doesn't need to be here and I don't know what it's going to take to get the system to understand."
Roberts said the UCSO is reviewing jail operations and procedures and ways to improve them in order to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.
The internal UCSO investigation is ongoing and running concurrently with the ASP's probe into the incident.
"Any time we have a death in the jail, we ask (the ASP) to come in and investigate to make sure we stay transparent," Roberts said. "We haven't gotten our internal report finalized yet."
Cindy Murphy, communications director for the ASP, said the agency was asked to investigate the in-custody death on Nov. 26, adding that the investigation remains active.