Rally calls attention to jail medical care

Inmates’ family members campaign for change

What started as a couple of awareness rallies bringing recognition to 20-year-old Morgan Angerbauer’s untimely death in the Bi-State Justice Building jail in 2016 became a more inclusive event Saturday in downtown Texarkana.

Family members of Angerbauer and other Bi-State inmates who died from medical complications related to an alleged lack of medical attention brought notice to the incidents, including one involving Eric Wilson, 33, who eventually died June 14, 2006, from complications related to brain cancer.

“Eric was first placed in the Bi-State for parole violation, then they moved him to the Bowie County Jail Annex,” said Carolyn Beal, Wilson’s mother. “We had to pay $360 to get him placed in Collum and Carney Clinic, but the doctor there said he needed immediate hospitalization.”

Wilson underwent surgery June 11, 2006, at Wadley Regional Medical Center, but he died three days later.

Inmate Demonstrous Witcher, 32, was suffering paralysis on his right side last month while

incarcerated for shoplifting, said his mother, Rosalind Witcher.

“We are here because we want justice for the people who are dying without medical attention in jail,” she said.

Witcher is being treated at CHRISTUS St. Michael Rehabilitation Hospital.

“This is the day that we come together as a community, and today is the day we will make history,” said Jennifer Houser, Angerbauer’s mother.

Staff photo by Greg Bischof ■ Jennifer Houser, the mother of 20-year-old Morgan Angerbauer, speaks Saturday at a rally outside the Bi-State Justice Building in Texarkana. Houser spoke about her daughter’s sudden death inside the Bi-State jail related to diabetic ketoacidosis in...

Staff photo by Greg Bischof ■ Carolyn Beal, the mother of Eric Wilson, and Rosalind Witcher, the mother of Demonstrous Witcher, stand at a rally Saturday outside the Bi-State Justice Building.