INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A 37-year-old man who was ordered back to the Indian River County Jail is in the intensive care unit of Indian River Medical Center on life support after he was discovered in the Sheriff’s Office transport van unconscious and non-responsive.
Mitchell Brad Martinez, 37, of Vero Beach, had been out on bail since his arrest in April 2013. However, after violating the conditions of his release, Judge Robert Pegg revoked Martinez’s bond on May 29, 2015, and remanded him back into the custody of the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff Deryl Loar held a press conference to explain the incident Monday afternoon, telling members of the media that Martinez was placed in an isolation cell of the transport van, separate from the seven male inmates who were also being transported back to the jail.
Martinez was so separated because he was “in street clothes,” Sheriff Loar said, explaining that the others in the van had been transported in their jumpsuits from the jail to the courthouse back to the jail. Martinez, however, had gone to the courthouse of his own volition and was ordered back to jail.
The driver drove the van 8 minutes back to the jail, traversing the 3.7-mile route without incident, Sheriff Loar said.
A Sheriff’s patrol car followed the van, transporting a single female inmate to the jail. Both the van and car arrived at the jail at the same time. Sheriff Loar said the female inmate was taken into the jail first, then the seven inmates. After they were taken in, deputies opened the separate door to Martinez’s cell and found him unconscious and unresponsive.
The sheriff said deputies immediately began working on Martinez, providing CPR and using an AED – automated external defibrillator – while nursing staff at the jail responded and an EMS crew arrived and continued in their efforts to resuscitate Martinez.
Sheriff Loar said during the press conference that Martinez is in the ICU at IRMC but the hospital had not released any information to investigators regarding Martinez’s condition or results of any tests, toxicology or otherwise.
Later in the afternoon, though, the Sheriff’s Office updated its information on its facebook page noting that Martinez is currently on life support.
Deputies are stationed at Martinez’s hospital room as he is an inmate of the Sheriff’s Office.
He added that investigators have met with Martinez’s family, who did not indicate that he has any medical history that might explain his condition.
Though there are images circulating on social media purporting to be ligature marks on Martinez’s neck, Sheriff Loar said there were no such marks on Martinez while Martinez was in the Sheriff’s Office custody.
“There are zero indications of that,” Sheriff Loar said of the supposed marks on Martinez’s neck.
Investigators with the Sheriff’s Office have been interviewing the seven inmates who were transported in the van and those interviews are on-going. The driver, too, has been interviewed.
So far, according to Sheriff Loar, there has been no indication from anyone in the van that anything unusual occurred.
Major Selby Strickland showed members of the media the van that was used to transport Martinez and the other inmates and explained that, while there are seatbelts provided, riders are not required to wear them. He said he did not know if Martinez was wearing a seatbelt but the investigation would answer that question.
He also noted that Martinez was shackled, wearing a leather belt restraint with his hands cuffed in the front. Major Strickland said that if Martinez had been in distress, he should have been able to use his head to bang on the Plexiglas divider separating him from the driver or he could have shouted.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, there is no indication that Martinez signaled for help at any time during the 8-minute ride from the courthouse to the jail.
Major Strickland told the media that the transport van is not equipped with internal surveillance cameras.