(Roberto Roldan / LPM)This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by phone at 988, or online at https://988lifeline.org/.A directory of mental health providers in Jefferson County is available at me ntalhealthlou.com.On Feb. 26, Louisville Metro Department of Corrections officers said they found Juan Miguel Munoz Penalver dead in the city jail just before 4:30 a.m. that morning.This week, the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting obtained public records that provide new details about the days Munoz Penalver spent behind bars.The records show that days before he died, jail staff placed Munoz Penalver, 21, on suicide watch for 24 hours and, after that, required he be checked every half-hour. The records also show more than five hours passed between the time a camera recorded him lying on the ground in his cell and when LMDC said staff found his body.Munoz Penalver is among nearly two dozen people who have died in the downtown jail’s custody since 2021.Louisville Metro Police arrested Munoz Penalver on Feb. 14 for an alleged assault, according to court records. In jail, he refused food, medical help and medication, and he allegedly spat on officers through the food slot of his cell door, according to documents LMPD provided in response to KyCIR’s request for public records on the police Public Integrity Unit’s investigation of Munoz Penalver’s death.On Feb. 16, he attempted suicide, but officers saw him on camera and intervened, the records say. Jail staff placed him on suicide watch for 24 hours.After that, he was locked up in a single cell “with checks every 30 minutes” by staff. The records do not detail how long the mandated 30-minute checks were supposed to continue.At about 11:15 p.m. on Feb. 25, video “from the cell camera indicated Mr. Penalver laid down on the ground of the cell, in front of the door … and did not appear to move at all afterwards,” according to a report provided by LMPD. A little more than five hours later, LMDC officers found Munoz Penalver unresponsive, after which he was pronounced dead on-scene by Metro emergency medical personnel.KyCIR requested comment from LMDC spokesperson Major Jason Logsdon, asking if the agency conducted checks on Munoz Penalver every 30 minutes during that roughly five-hour period before officers discovered his body.He declined to comment due to the ongoing investigation.“LMDC’s core mission is to protect the safety and well-being of the citizens of Jefferson County, both inside and outside of the facility. LMDC embraces maximum transparency in its operations,” Logsdon said via email. “When it comes to investigations of incidents that occur at LMDC, we cannot release information that may jeopardize the reliability of statements made by involved parties. Compromising an investigation in this way can prevent the causes of incidents from being discovered and addressed.”Jon Little, an attorney representing Munoz Penalver’s family, told KyCIR that he isn’t surprised there appears to be a multi-hour window where there isn’t evidence that jail staff checked on Munoz Penalver.“That seems to be consistent with the other Louisville [jail] death case I have, where there was a lapse in them following their procedures at night,” he said.Angela Cooper, spokesperson for the ACLU of Kentucky, said the information in the records KyCIR obtained is “deeply concerning.”“The events in the reports raise the question of whether jail staff are following the policies and procedures put in place to prevent these very circumstances,” she said in an email. “LMDC is not a mental health treatment facility, and the Louisville community deserves access to quality mental health care. We cannot continue to overburden the jail with community members they are not equipped to care for.”LMDC and LMPD are separately investigating Munoz Penalver’s death.LMPD mistakenly provided KyCIR with unredacted investigative files in response to a records request. Agency spokesperson Sgt. Matt Sanders said via email that the records weren’t redacted properly.He also said it’s his understanding that Munoz Penalver died of natural causes, although LMPD’s Public Integrity Unit is waiting on a final medical examiner’s report.Jefferson County Coroner Jo-Ann Farmer told KyCIR Monday that the autopsy for Munoz Penalver isn’t complete yet, which is why her office hasn’t publicly released any information on his cause of death.Family seeks “answers, transparency, and justice”Munoz Penalver’s stepmother, Ivelipse Munoz, has posted online about her family’s fight to learn more about Munoz Penalver’s arrest and the time he spent behind bars.In updates posted to a GoFundMe fundraiser, where people have donated about $2,500 to help the family pay for his memorial and other unexpected expenses, she said her stepson “suffered from mental health problems” and had received treatment for them.In a Facebook post Friday, she wrote, “Juan Miguel – Miguel, as many knew him – was a young man with dreams, plans, and a future ahead of him. Yes, he struggled with mental health challenges, but that never took away the value of his life. Today our family is asking for answers, transparency, and justice.”In another GoFundMe post, she said that on the day he was arrested, “he was going through one of his episodes.” The charges he faced “do not reflect the reality of what was happening,” she said.The LMPD arrest report for Munoz Penalver, obtained through court records, says officers arrived at 519 Huron Ave. on the afternoon of Feb. 14 and found a man “face down and bleeding from the face” while Munoz Penalver stood a few feet away with the keys to the other man’s truck lying between his feet. The report says the “key fob was covered in blood.”Later, at a hospital, the man told police that he went out to his truck and found Munoz Penalver in the front seat. The man said Munoz Penalver refused to get out, so he called the police. At that point, he said Munoz Penalver attacked him and broke his phone.Police said the man’s account of the broken phone “describes the 911 hang up and No answer during a call back.” The report also said the truck’s driver’s side window had a circular crack in it and the man’s face “has trauma and swelling.”Police said Munoz Penalver would not give any statements or information to LMPD officers.On GoFundMe, Ivelipse Munoz wrote earlier this month of her stepson, “He was charged with assault and other charges, and he was also placed with an arrest warrant by ICE. We understand that when someone commits a crime, they must face the consequences. We agree on that. What we cannot accept is the treatment he received while he was in custody - a treatment that ended up costing him his life.”Munoz Penalver was subject to an immigration detainer while in the Louisville jail, KyCIR previously reported based on jail records. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses detainers to ask jails to hold someone for an extra 48 hours beyond when they’re scheduled to be let out of lock-up, so federal agents can take custody of them if ICE says there’s probable cause to believe that person can legally be deported.Court records suggest Munoz Penalver wasn’t scheduled to be released when he died, because his bond in the assault case had been set at $20,000.Munoz Penalver was due to appear in Jefferson District Court the day he died. On GoFundMe, Ivelipse Munoz said his family was waiting for him there when they learned the status of his case had changed.“We thought that perhaps he had been transferred to ICE custody, but there was no record of him. Minutes later, his defense lawyer called us to inform us that he had been found dead in his cell,” she wrote. “At that time, they didn't give us any explanation.”Ivelipse Munoz discussed Munoz Penalver’s immigration status on the GoFundMe. She said he came to the U.S. in 2024, was granted two years’ parole and had a work permit, with a residence application in process.Little, the Munoz family’s attorney, told KyCIR: “I think that even though people may be quote ‘illegal,’ they're still people. And you know, I really believe that we're going to be judged on how we treat the least among us. And I have some serious concerns about how the city of Louisville is treating the least among us.”Across Ivelipse Munoz’s posts, her and her family’s love for Munoz Penalver is clear.“Juan was only 21 years old. He was a hard worker and someone we loved deeply,” she wrote in her first post on the GoFundMe fundraiser. “Though he faced personal struggles, he was still our family, and his loss has left us devastated.” ...read more read less