Family of inmate who died after being slammed on head to receive $5 million settlement

Bennie Jaramillo remembers taking his son off of life support.

His son, John Sanchez, had a brain bleed and fractures in his skull, spine and shoulder.

Four days before he’d lain comatose under hospital sheets, 34-year-old Sanchez was being escorted to his cell in handcuffs at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) when his head was slammed to the ground by a corrections officer.

“He was a good kid — didn't have to die the way he did,” Jaramillo said.

Now, years later, Bernalillo County has agreed to pay $5 million to Sanchez's family in a September settlement agreement, putting an end to a wrongful death lawsuit and a painful chapter in their lives.

“Even if MDC will never admit to liability, we all know what the $5 million means,” said Taylor Smith, an attorney representing Sanchez’s family. “It means that they did do something wrong.”

After the incident, Sanchez's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the county and the guard who tackled him.

Though that suit has resolved, Sanchez’s family is still embroiled in a legal battle with the jail’s previous health care provider, arguing that medical staff failed to take a critically injured Sanchez to the hospital, which contributed to his death.

Still, Jaramillo said that money will never be enough.

“I don't care about money or nothing,” Jaramillo said. “I never wanted money. I want justice for my son.”

But Jaramillo's sense of justice may never come. This settlement marks not only the end of the family’s legal fight with the jail, but with the guard as well. 

On June 12, 2023, Sgt. Stephen Gabaldon was escorting a handcuffed Sanchez, when Sanchez allegedly kicked him, according to an MDC incident report. Immediately after, Gabaldon is shown in an MDC surveillance video tackling the short-statured Sanchez to the ground head first.

Sanchez was checked by medical staff, then returned to his cell. He was found 45 minutes later vomiting and in the midst of a seizure, according to the report.

He was taken to the University of New Mexico Hospital, where physicians found that he’d suffered a large brain bleed and cranial, spinal and shoulder blade fractures. He was brain dead.

Four days later, his family decided to take him off of life support.

“I want and need Gabaldon behind bars,” Jaramillo said. 

Gabaldon and the county’s legal team could not be reached Tuesday. The Metropolitan Detention Center also did not respond to requests for comment.

Gabaldon was placed on paid administrative leave after the incident and now no longer works at MDC. 

At the time of his death, Sanchez was in jail for unsubstantiated auto theft charges that were later dropped. Sanchez was also jailed in the detox unit, where many people have died in recent years. 

“I do blame the justice system,” Jaramillo said. “He’d get in trouble, they’d let him out. Maybe if they were less lenient on people we could have forced him to get help.”

The last few years of his son’s life were rough, Jaramillo admitted, as Sanchez struggled with drug addiction and ended up bouncing in and out of jail.

Sanchez was the father of three, with one daughter who died as an infant. In the wake of his daughter’s death, Sanchez’s life spiraled out of control, Jaramillo said. 

Despite the trouble his son would get in, Jaramillo can’t fathom why Gabaldon acted the way he did. 

“There was no reason for him to have done that,” Jaramillo said. “My son was handcuffed. He was in jail. He wasn't trying to escape – so I want charges.”

An investigation into the death, with the possibility of criminal charges against Gabaldon, was forwarded to the Second Judicial District Attorney's Office by November 2023. In July, the DA's Office told the Journal no decision had been made whether to bring a criminal case against Gabaldon. 

It is unclear where the case stands now.