DENVER — A Denver family has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the City and County of Denver after their loved one was killed inside of a cell at the Downtown Detention Center by another inmate.
The family of 34-year-old Vincent Chacon and their lawyers believe his death was preventable, and that he should have never been housed with the inmate who later pleaded guilty to killing him.
"No parent should ever have to stand before cameras and speak about the death of their child," said Chacon's mother, Angela Hernandez, in front of the crowd gathered at the announcement of the lawsuit. "My son, Vincent, was more than just the circumstances of his death. He was a son, he was a brother, he was a friend, and most importantly, he was a human being who deeply mattered.”
Denver
Family of man killed in Denver Jail cell demands accountability
Hernandez said she wants to remember her son for who he was, not how he died.
“He was a clown. I mean, I don't think there was a serious bone in his body," said Hernandez. “Everyone who came in contact with Vincent just loved him.”
The lawsuit asserts that deputies with the Denver Sheriff Department placed "an extremely violent and dangerous man, high on methamphetamine" into Chacon's cell, and "then ignored his cries for help as that man strangled him to death."
That man was Ricky Lee Roybal-Smith, 39, "a repeat offender with a long rap sheet," according to the filing. The documents continue to claim that Roybal-Smith was classified as a maximum-security inmate, while Chacon was a medium-security inmate.
The lawsuit says Roybal-Smith strangled Chacon to death within hours of the two sharing a cell.
"It was patently obvious to the City and County of Denver that this man was a danger to himself and others, that he was high, that he had a long and sordid history of violent criminal behavior, and yet they put him in a cell with a young man who had not engaged in any kind of violence at all. A young man who was just trying to do what he needed to do to get through the process and get out to get home to his friends and family," said Mari Newman, an attorney on the case. "What happened was horrifying."
According to the timeline contained in the federal filing, Chacon was booked into the jail on a failure to appear warrant for alleged shoplifting on June 26, 2025.
An affidavit for Roybal-Smith obtained by Denver7 shows that Denver Police initially arrested him as a driver who fled the scene after crashing into a pedestrian, and proceeded to cause a hit-and-run. At the same time, Aurora Police were searching for Roybal-Smith on suspicion of murdering two men, Scott Davenport and Jesse Shafer.
The arrest papers show that Shafer was stabbed approximately 15 times, and Davenport was stabbed roughly 90 times. Investigators determined that there was only an hour estimated between the two murders in the early hours of June 29.
The federal filing states that Roybal-Smith was arrested while under the influence of methamphetamine and was placed into the same cell as Chacon on the evening of June 29.
"He should never have been in a cell with somebody who Denver knew had been designated as a dangerous, high-risk, repeat criminal," said Newman. "Denver has all kinds of protocols that it absolutely failed to follow in this case.”
Lawyers on the case said they recently obtained an inmate grievance form from Aug. 2025, where an inmate claimed they listened to Chacon "cry for help all night in his cell while being choked to death and deputies did nothing for him until he was dead."
"He was crying out, trying to get help, and the only reason we know that is because over a year later — after request after request after request — Denver finally produced some of the documents we have been demanding for the last year," Newman said.
"I was telling myself he didn't suffer, that even though his life was taken, that he went immediately. And now to hear the graphic details and how long he suffered angers me, and it reopens all those wounds, and it's like reliving the phone call all over again," Hernandez said.
The lawsuit continues to say that just after 2:15 a.m. on June 30, Roybal-Smith banged on the cell window and reported that Chacon was choking. At that time, the suit says Chacon was already dead.
According to the court documents, Roybal-Smith told deputies Chacon choked on an apple.
The Denver Office of the Medical Examiner determined strangulation was Chacon's cause of death, and the manner was homicide.
The filing asserts that deputies failed to conduct timely welfare checks, failed to safely classify and house inmates, and failed to train, supervise, and discipline subordinate deputies regarding those duties.
“We're here demanding accountability, demanding change, and demanding that this never happens again," said Newman.
"Even though his voice was silenced, ours is going to get louder, and we're not going to stop fighting," Hernandez said.
In March, Roybal-Smith was sentenced to 80 years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of second-degree murder related to Shafer and Davenport.
Then, in April, Roybal-Smith pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Chacon's case, along with a driving under the influence charge. He received a 56-year prison sentence that will be served concurrently with his 80-year sentence.
Denver7 reached out to the Denver City Attorney's Office, which said they do not have a comment on the new lawsuit at this time. A spokesperson continued to say they have not been served with the suit yet.
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