Inmate Dies After Judge Ordered Him Released

Gary Mims came to Los Angeles from his home in Waco, Tex., a few months ago, apparently because his parents wanted him to enroll in school.

Then he got in trouble. He was arrested in March for participating in the sale of a “non-controlled substance”--not drugs, his attorney said, but “bunk,” a substance designed to look like and be peddled as a drug.

Unable to make bail, Mims, 21, waited in Los Angeles County’s Central Jail for his case to be resolved. Last Friday he went to court to enter a plea of guilty, with the understanding that his sentence would be limited to the time he had already served.

A judge ordered Mims released on his own recognizance and ordered him to return to court for sentencing on June 12. Mims was taken back to Central Jail to be processed for his release.

He would not leave alive.

Placed in Cell

According to a sheriff’s spokesman, Mims was taken to the jail’s Inmate Reception Center, where all prisoners are taken after court appearances. He was placed in a holding cell to wait for his release paper work to be approved.

In the cell he became ill. A nurse examined him and suggested that he might be suffering from a psychological disorder.

Another nurse was summoned from the county Department of Mental Health’s office in the jail. Mims would not respond to the nurse’s questions.

The nurse decided to place him in the jail’s psychological observation module, which consists of one-man cells. A psychological evaluation was scheduled for the next day.

When deputies came to summon Mims at 6 the next morning, they found him dead on the floor of his cell. There was no sign of external injury, the sheriff’s spokesman said.

Lab Tests Set

The county coroner’s office conducted an autopsy Tuesday. It was inconclusive. Laboratory tests will be conducted to check for organ failure or possible drug use, with results expected next week.

Mims’ sister-in-law, Doris Bush-Mims, who lives in Los Angeles with Mims’ brother, Willie, said Gary Mims’ father plans to come here to collect his son’s body and return it to Waco, where he will hire a pathologist to perform an independent autopsy.

Mims’ attorney, Alexandra Cury, said her client had no prior record and seemed fit and healthy.

“The biggest problem (of hearing about the death) was the timing of it,” Cury said Thursday. “He was supposed to be free by the time he died.”