Dallas family blames sheriff's office for overdose death of 21-year-old jail inmate
Quinnetta Brinkley's family knew she was coming home from the Dallas County Jail in July. No one thought they would reunite at a funeral home after investigators alleged she was murdered after another woman smuggled fentanyl into the jail.
Opal Brinkley, her 74-year-old grandmother, said the family was grieving without any answers from authorities.
Opal Brinkley said she started raising Quinnetta Ariana Brinkley, known as Ari, when the girl was two years old. She also took in Ari's siblings due to parenting issues and raised them in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas.
Ari's family described her as having a strong independent streak with a knack for defending herself. Her uncle Reginald Brinkley said that is how she ended up in jail.
"She wasn't there because of some, the way it makes it seem like that she is, like she was a drug addict," Reginald Brinkley said.
He blamed her failure to return home on the Dallas County Sheriff's Office.
"When she got out, she was coming back here," he said. "And she's not coming back here. And she's not coming back here. That's it for her."
An arrest affidavit said Daisy Zuniga, 26, faces a murder charge in Quinnetta Brinkley's death. Authorities say Zuniga confessed to hiding drugs in a body cavity so Dallas police officers would not find them during an arrest for trespassing.
The drugs also got past the Dallas County Jail's X-ray scanner and a strip search, investigators said. Inside the jail, the affidavit said, at least four women, including Zuniga, took Xanax pills that contained methamphetamine and fentanyl. It's unclear if the women knew what was in the pills.
All four women who took the pills had a second dose, after which they needed medical treatment. Ari Brinkley was found around 8:23 p.m. and pronounced dead less than an hour later. Her family said they got notice from the Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office, but have not heard from the Dallas County Sheriff's Office.
"I'm still waiting on it," Opal Brinkley said. "To this day, no one has talked to me from the jail."
The Dallas County Sheriff's Office declined to comment due to the ongoing investigation.
Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price, in an interview with CBS News Texas, said he believes Quinnetta Brinkley's next of kin was notified.
Price said that as he awaits the outcome of the sheriff's investigation, he is standing with the officers because he's seen what they do.
"Contraband is always a challenge for us," Price said. "It's not the fact that they missed anything. I mean, it was in her cavity, you know, it wasn't like she, you know, had it around her neck or in her hand."
Price also said the death was reported to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards.
In the meantime, the Brinkley family is dealing with a wound her uncle said is just starting to open. Plus, Ari had a one-year-old daughter who does not realize her mother isn't coming home.
"Motto, to protect and serve went out the door," Reginald Brinkley said. "Now she's gone because somebody didn't do their job."