MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A South Florida family is searching for answers after their loved one died in a Miami-Dade County jail.
His cause of death was fentanyl poisoning, but the question is, how did he get it while behind bars?
Monday night, Local 10 News reported on drug-laced papers making their way into Miami-Dade jails, with the smuggling allegedly involving corrections officers.
The father of 34-year-old Rodney Latzzis reflected on the last time he heard from his son, recalling that his last words to his father was telling him he didn’t think he’d make it.
Just a few days later, Latzzis would lose his life, dying in his cell in September of 2022.
“I called to see how he was doing. They said he wasn’t feeling well the night before,” said Latzzis’ uncle Darren Lewis. “They never came back to the phone. The phone disconnected...A prisoner called me and told me that he was killed, that he was dead.”
Latzzis’ mother, father and uncle told Local 10 News they still don’t know what exactly happened to him, saying they had a hard time getting information about his death.
“She said they went to give him breakfast and then they went back at 8 o’clock and found him unresponsive,” said Browley. “She said there was going to be an investigation and they would get back to me.”
After two weeks, Browley spoke to the medical examiner.
“He said that my son had enough fentanyl in his system to kill 20 people,” she said.
Latzzis wouldn’t be the only one. Just one month later, inmate Michael Hill died in his cell.
Both their deaths were ruled by the medical examiner as fentanyl poisoning.
The medical examiner said the jail had video of Latzzis smoking in his cell the night before he died.
“That’s why he ruled my son’s death a fentanyl overdose, because the jail showed him video of my son smoking,” said Browley.
Local 10 News requested the video, but the jail said they can’t hand it over for security reasons.
“After our son’s death, his attorney went to the judge so the Department of Corrections would be held at fault for his death,” said Browley. “He read this letter to the judge from my son about the mistreatment he was getting in there.”
Latzzis wrote to the judge about two weeks before he died. In the letter, he talks about how he felt unsafe.
Toward the end, it read, in part: “Please help….I don’t want to die like this.”
How Latzzis got those drugs inside a jail remains unclear.
“You would think as time goes on it would get easier, but it’s not. I don’t have any answers,” said Browley.
Back in March, Local 10 News uncovered that a public corruption investigation is underway involving drugs being smuggled into Miami-Dade jails by a ring of people, including corrections officers.
Whether or not the overdoses are connected is unclear.
Defense attorneys are no longer able to take paper discovery into the jails when they see their clients.
These attorneys tell Local 10 News packages are being mailed to the jails with false sender information, and inside are papers laced in drugs.
“How did they even get in there? Obviously nothing is going to bring my son back,” said Browley. “I want to know what time did they feed him breakfast. Was he alive? Was he awake? What prompted them to go back at 8 o’clock? And most importantly, how did the drugs get into the system?”
“By the staff,” Lewis said. “That’s how they got in.”
The family tells Local 10 News they’ve been calling and calling, asking questions, desperate for answers.
“Not in this life, I won’t ever get a chance to hug my son again,” said Browley. “I won’t even hear his voice anymore.”
On Wednesday, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava had few words about the deaths and public corruption investigation.
“I can just tell you we’re on it,” she said.