CLAYTON — During the roughly three months Edward L. Jones, 74, was incarcerated at the ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Jail, he told his wife that his reports of chest pains, black stools and trouble breathing or standing were often ignored and that he sometimes didn’t receive his medication.
Jones died in custody March 6 from an ulcer, with congestive heart failure and cardiovascular disease, according to medical records obtained by the Post-Dispatch.
“They were just totally negligent,†said Kathy Jones, his wife.
County spokesman Doug Moore said he had no comment on the family’s claims of negligence.
Two days before he died, Edward Jones was sitting on the bottom bunk inside his county jail cell when he became weak and was not able to reach for an emergency button, according to the medical report.
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A guard walking past heard him yelling for help and noticed he was sweating profusely with altered mental status, slurred speech and complaining of chest pains.
Edward Jones was treated at the jail’s infirmary, but the next day his symptoms worsened, so jail officials contacted Clayton Fire/EMS at 10:38 p.m.
“It should be noted, he was handcuffed while enroute to the hospital,†the medical investigator wrote in the report.
Edward Jones was taken to St. Mary’s Hospital, which is less than 3 miles from the jail but arrived at 11:29 p.m. — when his handcuffs were removed.
The report notes life-saving measures were performed. He was pronounced dead at 2:46 a.m. on March 6.
Jones did receive some medical attention while incarcerated. Right after being booked into the jail in November, he was hospitalized for about two weeks, something Kathy Jones said she didn’t find out about until days later.
There was also another hospital visit, but she said having more questions than answers from the jail’s administration is why she’s hired an attorney.
The attorney, Alex Ledbetter, says they are still in the investigative stage.
“The timeline of events is going to matter here,†he said.
A county official asked for comment about Edward Jones’ death in custody in March said he had a brain tumor — but no tumor was mentioned in the medical examiner’s report. Kathy Edwards said her husband had had a small tumor about 20 years ago.
Edward Jones’ death is another trauma the family is healing from, his wife said.
He was arrested and charged with assault and armed criminal action in November, Moore said in March.
The arrest stemmed from a family dispute over storage at the couple’s home in St. John, and Edward Jones was accused of shooting his son. The bullet hit the younger man’s lung, and he was hospitalized in the ICU.
Edward Jones was not his biological father, and their relationship had become estranged over the years, Kathy Jones said. She’d noticed a difference in her husband, that his personality changed — he was more depressed and less tolerant, she said.
“I was more forgiving. Ed was not,†she said.
Still, she says everyone deserves to be treated with humanity. The shooting divided the family. Edward Jones, a Navy veteran who served in Vietnam, was buried last month, his wife said.
“Whatever reason someone goes to jail, they shouldn’t die there,†Kathy Jones said.