Inmate contracted COVID-19 at Bexar County Jail, then bonded out. Now what?

BCSO officials claim 3 inmates who tested positive have been released. Sources say actual number is much higher.

SAN ANTONIO – When the trial date for his burglary case came and went this week without him even being driven over to the Bexar County Justice Center for a court appearance, Shelby Hollin made the decision to use his tax refund to bail himself out of jail.

Hollin, who had been in custody at the Bexar County Jail since late October, says detention officers handed him a few papers on what to do if he started showing COVID-19 symptoms and made sure he had a ride before releasing him Tuesday.

He’s been self-quarantining at an area motel ever since.

“Tensions are very high and I think if this had been approached a different way, people would be more at ease,” Hollin said Thursday, describing a jail environment that got increasingly frantic in recent weeks.

Hollin, like hundreds of inmates at the jail, tested positive for COVID-19.

And like many of the people inside the facility where cases and testing have surged the past week, Hollin is asymptomatic.

Sheriff Javier Salazar this week said the asymptomatic element of the pervasive virus is one of its scariest facets to it.

‘The numbers are scary’: Bexar County sheriff announces latest COVID-19 jail numbers, efforts to contain spread

“I don’t have the authority, and I don’t know if I want to live in a country where a sheriff could latch onto you because you’re sick or because you have a fever,” Salazar said Tuesday during a news briefing when asked if detention officers were speeding up the release process for inmates who had tested positive or were showing symptoms.

Salazar denied that the process is sped up for any inmate who is bonding out.

Officials at the jail, where the number of positive cases among inmates has nearly doubled to over 300 in less than a week, claim that only three COVID-positive inmates have been released back into the public.

Multiple Bexar County Sheriff’s Office sources who spoke with the KSAT 12 Defenders this week said that figure is actually much higher.

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Hollin, who claims he was told he had tested positive within the past couple weeks, said detention officers made the mistake of not providing enough space for social distancing when his unit was moved to another area of the facility.

“I could reach out to my left and I could literally reach beneath me and in front of me because of the way the bunks were set up. You literally couldn’t go anywhere without bumping into somebody,” said Hollin, who went as far as to say he would have been willing to sleep on a mat on the floor if it meant he could have had a few extra feet of space.

Hollin said since he checked into a motel loved ones have provided masks, gloves and even groceries.

He said he is soon planning to return to his job.


About the Authors:

Emmy-award winning reporter Dillon Collier joined KSAT Investigates in September 2016. Dillon's investigative stories air weeknights on the Nightbeat and on the Six O'Clock News. Dillon is a two-time Houston Press Club Journalist of the Year and a Texas Associated Press Broadcasters Reporter of the Year.

Joshua Saunders is an Emmy-nominated photographer/editor who has worked in the San Antonio market for the past 20 years. Joshua works in the Defenders unit, covering crime and corruption throughout the city.