Texas prison guards charged after inmate dies locked inside burning jail cell

A pair of Texas prison guards were fired and arrested after allegedly leaving an inmate to die locked inside a burning and smoke-filled cell, according to reports.

Lieutenant WIlliam Eugene Romero, 33, was charged with criminally negligent homicide and Sgt. Crystal Janelle West, 39, with second-degree manslaughter after the horrific incident Sunday at a Texas Department of Criminal Justice facility, Amarillo Globe-News reported.

“The agency is working closely with OIG and the Special Prosecution Unit so that those staff who allegedly failed to act will be held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” the department said in a statement to the outlet.

According to reports, the incident began to unfold early Sunday morning, when the ill-fated inmate, who has not been identified, lit a mattress on fire inside his cell at a high-security William P. Clement Unit of the Texas jail system in Amarillo.

But when officers ordered him to place his hands through the food tray opening, he refused — prompting West to call for her on-duty supervisor, who was Romero, KFDA-TV News said in a report.

Romero then allegedly told the sergeant to leave the foot tray slot closed and the officers left.

“He said, ‘It’s just gonna stay shut,’” sources told KFDA. “‘We-re not opening it. It’s a safety risk.”

West allegedly returned later, but still left the inmate trapped inside the smoky cell, the outlet said.

“West goes back an hour later. She has the common sense to open the food tray slot, which is just billowing smoke out of an 8-by-10 cell,” the source said. “She would not pull him out of the cell.

“She wouldn’t open the door,” they said. “She refused to help in any way.”

Jail staffers returned to the cell around 3:19 a.m. Sunday and found the inmate unresponsive — and he was pronounced dead less than an hour later, the reports said.

Romero and West were both arrested later that day, and booked at the Potter County jail — with officials telling the Globe-News that both were fired from their jobs.

Romero was ordered held on a $150,000 bond, and West on a $200,000 bond.

Online records indicate that both were still in custody as of Tuesday evening.