On a Sunday morning in March 2025, hours after Dennis Francis Barrett left his parents’ home in West Alton, Missouri, he got into the fender-bender that led to his death.
Police officers responding to the crash found that Barrett, 38, had a warrant for violating probation on a 2019 marijuana possession charge. He was taken to Granite City Jail before being transferred to Madison County Jail.
Despite repeatedly telling staff at both jails that he’d been in a car accident and was in worsening pain, and asking to be taken to an emergency room, he didn’t get help, according to a report obtained from the Illinois State Police (ISP). Staff and other people who had been in the jail with Barrett later told ISP investigators that as his condition visibly deteriorated, they thought he was going through withdrawal…