Georgia Kay Baldwin
- Age: 52
- Name of Jail: Lon Evans Corrections Center
- Location: Forth Worth, TX
- Cause of Death*: Severe hypernatremia
- Incarceration Type: Pre-trial detention
- Private Company: N/A
- Incarceration Duration: About five months
- Date of Death: September 14, 2021
Georgia Kay Baldwin was a 52-year-old mother in Texas. In April 2021, she was arrested and booked into a Tarrant County, TX, jail after allegedly leaving threatening voicemail messages for a law enforcement officer. She was found incompetent to stand trial and sent to the jail’s competency restoration program. After Baldwin spent more than a month in the program, the court ordered her transfer to a state hospital “without unnecessary delay,” but she was never transferred.
Instead, Baldwin remained in the county jail and was confined to a “small cell, where she could not see through a window or view other human beings,” according to a lawsuit filed by her family. While incarcerated, she frequently appeared disheveled, agitated and illogical, according to jail records summarized in the lawsuit.
On September 14, Baldwin was found unresponsive in her cell. An autopsy from the county’s chief medical examiner indicated that she had “severe hypernatremic dehydration,” or a high concentration of sodium in her blood resulting from insufficient water intake. A Texas Ranger who investigated her death noted that Baldwin had a water fountain in her cell and that hypernatremia is typically associated with "impaired mental judgment.”
The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to the Lab’s request for comment.
A full account of the lawsuit, including the estate’s allegations against Tarrant County and the county’s response, is available through PACER (Case 4:23-cv-00635, Northern District of Texas).