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Jury Set for Trial in Gregg County Jail Inmate Death

Posted/updated on: January 9, 2013 at 1:59 pm
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MARSHALL Two longtime teachers, a janitor, and a self-described housewife were among eight people selected Monday to decide whether Gregg County is to blame for the 2010 death of a jail inmate. KETK and the Longview News-Journal report the federal jury panel is to begin hearing evidence Jan. 22 in the wrongful death suit brought by the children and mother of Amy Lynn Cowling. U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap of Marshall sent the five-woman, three-man jury home Monday with strict instructions not to discuss their assignment, including on social media. Gilstrap said he expected the trial to run for about five days.

Cowling was 33 when she was brought to the Gregg County Jail Christmas Eve, after a traffic stop revealed two out-of-county misdemeanor theft warrants and some unpaid tickets. She died in a separation cell Dec. 28. Defense attorney Robert Davis told the panel during selection process that Cowlings cause of death was …a product of having abused drugs for years.

A recovering opiate addict of seven years, Cowling was under a methadone regimen prescribed by a drug-addiction clinic in Tyler. She also was taking prescription medications. Those drugs, including the methadone, are not on the list of approved medications allowed by jail policy. Cowlings family says the seizures and inability to communicate into which she lapsed were the result of withdrawal from her prescribed medications. Four jailers were fired within a week of Cowlings death.



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