Brother of Cuban Who Died in ICE Custody Challenges Official Cause of Death

The brother of Demi Adán González, a 33-year-old Cuban found dead on April 29 in solitary confinement at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, has raised concerns about inconsistencies in the reported cause of death. Initially attributed to the ingestion of a chemical product, officials have now classified the death as a hanging, without providing any explanation for the change.

Dayán Hernández González, who lives in Spain, recounted that a forensic official contacted his brother's partner in North Carolina to inform her of the revised cause of death. "She called to say that now they're claiming my brother hanged himself," Dayán expressed, visibly puzzled by the discrepancy. "It's no longer about a chemical; they now say it was hanging."

Dayán dismisses this new narrative outright, labeling it as absurd. He argues that his brother had embraced Christianity in the months leading up to his death. "How can they now claim he hanged himself? My brother had converted, was attending church, reading the Bible, and had been baptized—I even have video evidence of this," he stated.

The baptism of Demi, according to Dayán, occurred sometime between June and December 2025 in North Carolina. The deceased's partner can confirm the specific date and church they attended together.

Dayán also points to his brother's family obligations as a reason the official explanation seems implausible. "He left behind two children, one in Cuba and another in the United States," he noted. Demi had even attempted to bring the mother of his Cuban child from Mexico, though she was unable to cross the border.

"My brother was a kind and helpful person," Dayán emphasized, claiming to have video evidence of the baptism to support his claims.

Lourdes González Suárez, Demi's mother, who remains in Cuba, has already called for an independent investigation, suggesting that "the guards killed him." A cellmate of Demi also questioned the suicide theory, noting that Demi got along well with everyone in the facility.

Earlier reports indicate that days before his death, Demi had a confrontation with a guard from CoreCivic, the private contractor operating the center, and was immediately placed in solitary confinement—referred to by detainees as "the hole"—where he died days later.

Demi's death marks the third Cuban under ICE custody to die in 2026. Prior cases include Geraldo Lunas Campos, whose autopsy indicated homicide by asphyxiation, contradicting ICE's account, and Aled Damián Carbonell Betancourt, 27, who died at the Federal Detention Center in Miami.

In 2026, a total of 18 immigrants have died in ICE custody, the highest number in 22 years, according to Physicians for Human Rights.

The official investigation into Demi's death is being handled by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Meanwhile, Demi's family is seeking financial support to repatriate his remains to Cuba, with no coherent explanation offered yet by any authorities regarding the circumstances of his death.