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Tarrant County inmate died of fentanyl, trazodone toxicity in custody last month

A jail cell at the Tarrant County jail in Fort Worth.
Yfat Yossifor
/
KERA
A jail cell at the Tarrant County jail in Fort Worth. Officials said county detention officers found 42-year-old inmate Roderick Johnson unresponsive in his cell one April morning after he hadn’t shown up for breakfast.

One of two people who died in Tarrant County Jail custody last month died of fentanyl and trazodone poisoning, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.

At 5:35 a.m. April 18, Tarrant County detention officers found 42-year-old Roderick Johnson unresponsive in his cell after he hadn’t shown up for breakfast, according to the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office. Medical professionals attempted life-saving measures, but Johnson was later pronounced dead at 5:20 a.m., according to the medical examiner's office. His death was labeled accidental.

Use of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, has been on the rise in North Texas in recent years as law enforcement and public health officials respond to a sharp increase in overdoses. Trazodone is an antidepressant.

KERA News has reached out to the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office for comment on how the substances got into the jail and how Johnson's death may affect the jail's contraband procedures.

Johnson had been jailed since Dec. 4, 2023 on charges of unlawful possession of a firearm as a felon and deadly conduct.

He died three days before 31-year-old Anthony Johnson — no relation — who died about an hour after being pepper sprayed by detention officers at the county jail during a routine cell check for contraband. His cause of death is pending.

At least 63 people have died at the Tarrant County Jail since Sheriff Bill Waybourn took office in 2017, according to data provided by his office in late April. Three of those were fentanyl-related overdoses.

Waybourn said the death of Anthony Johnson, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, was a sign the jail needs better mental health care. Anthony Johnson's family has demanded to see footage from the day he died.

KERA News also requested footage of Anthony Johnson's death, which has not yet been released.

Got a tip? Email Toluwani Osibamowo at tosibamowo@kera.org. You can follow Toluwani on X @tosibamowo.

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Toluwani Osibamowo covers law and justice for KERA News. She joined the newsroom in 2022 as a general assignments reporter. She previously worked as a news intern for Texas Tech Public Media and copy editor for Texas Tech University’s student newspaper, The Daily Toreador, before graduating with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She was named one of Current's public media Rising Stars in 2024. She is originally from Plano.