Nickie Costello, the 40-year-old Houston man accused of stabbing his parents to death in 2021, died Thursday afternoon while in Harris County custody after suffering a medical emergency. He was pronounced dead shortly after 3:30 p.m. at St. Joseph Medical Center, according to Harris County officials.
Paramedics rushed Costello to the hospital after the medical emergency, and he was pronounced deceased there, according to FOX 26 Houston. The Harris County Sheriff's Office said Costello suffered the emergency on Thursday, though the station reported that his cause of death remains under investigation. His death has been reported to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, and the Texas Rangers are now investigating, per the same report.
The Sheriff's Office Internal Affairs Division will separately review whether all applicable policies and procedures were followed in Costello's case, the station noted. Under state rules, the sheriff or jail operator is required to forward a copy of any autopsy or investigation report to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards within 10 days after that process concludes, with notifications sent by email or phone during business hours.
A Capital Murder Case Headed to Court
Costello had been held on a capital murder charge tied to the deaths of his parents, David Morgan and Juanita Costello, and records showed he was scheduled to appear in court in early December, the station's report said. He was arrested in 2021 at age 35 after police found his parents dead from multiple stab wounds at their Houston Northside home, according to ABC13 Houston, which reported that Juanita Costello had run her psychic business out of the same house.
ABC13's reporting from the time of the arrest indicated that Nickie Costello had left the home in a car and crashed on the I-45 feeder at Gulf Bank, where he was found with a stab wound. The outlet reported it was unclear at the time whether his injuries stemmed from the crash or from an earlier altercation at the house.
Part of a Larger Pattern at the Jail
Costello's death adds to a string of recent in-custody medical emergencies at the Harris County Jail. Robert Cyprian, 49, died at Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital after a medical emergency, pronounced dead at 1:07 a.m. on Oct. 29, according to KPRC Click2Houston. Lenton Gallow Jr., 55, also died after a medical emergency inside the jail, pronounced dead at St. Joseph Hospital just after 2:30 p.m. on a Wednesday, as reported by Houston Public Media.
That same Houston Public Media report found that 20 people died in the jail's custody last year, up from 10 the year before, and noted a recent state inspection that identified deficiencies with fire-control panels and delays in providing timely medical services to inmates, leaving the facility out of compliance with state minimum jail standards. Other recent cases include Tanner Goldade, 30, who died at St. Joseph's Hospital after an apparent medical emergency following 301 days in jail on an assaulting-a-peace-officer charge, and Tevin McClendon, 33, who lost consciousness at the LaSalle Correctional Center and was later pronounced dead at a local hospital, according to CW39.
Questions Over Reporting Past Deaths
A separate investigation by Houston Landing found that Harris County Jail officials did not report at least six inmate deaths since 2018 involving people who had medical emergencies in custody and later died, including Walter Klein, 55, who had a heart attack after arriving at the jail in 2018 and died 16 days later. The outlet also found that the jail actually had 28 deaths in 2022, despite a reported total of 27, and that in a review of nearly 100 jail deaths between 2018 and 2023, officials reported deaths to state authorities just 12 percent of the time even when a person had already bonded out or had their case dismissed before dying.
It is not known whether any of those documented reporting gaps apply to Costello's case. For now, his death leaves the capital murder case against him unresolved just weeks before it was due back in a Harris County courtroom, with the Texas Rangers and the Sheriff's Office Internal Affairs Division both now examining what happened in his final hours.
