MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The family of an inmate who died while in custody at the Shelby County Jail is suing, claiming deputy jailers did nothing despite threats from the man’s cellmate that he would kill him.
The lawsuit, filed by a Memphis attorney as well as Ben Crump, seeks $75 million in damages and lists the parents of Marcus Donald as the plaintiffs and Sheriff Floyd Bonner, Chief Jailer Kirk Fields, and several other jailers as defendants.
According to the lawsuit, Donald was strangled by a cellmate overnight Nov. 17 to 18, 2022, and was pronounced brain dead on Nov. 23 by doctors at Regional One Hospital. It claims Donald was the 35th person to die in Shelby County custody since January 2019, and the 14th in 2022.
Timeline of events
The lawsuit claims the day he was strangled, Donald had entered a guilty plea in his case and was given a time-served sentence of five-months. That means, according to the lawsuit, he should have been released that day, as he had been in the jail since May 6, 2022. Instead, Donald continued to be held at the jail, despite pleas to the guards to let him begin the process of leaving. Later that evening at about 5:30 p.m., Donald was taken to another cell when he was told he would spend the night.
The lawsuit contends the inmate already in the cell when Donald was placed told the guards not to put him in there and threatened to kill him if they did.
About 10 p.m., the suit claims Donald told a staff member he should have checked out hours earlier and he feared for his life but was told “That ain’t got s**t to do with me.”
The lawsuit said the inmate in the cell with Donald had spoken to other inmates about the first-degree murder charges against him in a “cool, detached manner,” and had “nothing to lose, having already ‘caught a body.’” The other inmates said the inmate began saying he would kill Donald.
Just after 10 p.m. during a security check, the lawsuit contends other inmates told guards Donald should have checked out hours before, and they were worried for his safety. The suit said when the guards moved on, the inmates began loudly kicking their cell doors to bring the guards back, continuing for about 30 to 40 minutes.
About 10:45 p.m. during the next security check, the lawsuit says Donald pleaded to be moved, and the officer reported the situation to her superiors but was told to ignore it.
According to the lawsuit, Donald was found unconscious on the floor of the cell about 12:30 a.m. He was taken to Regional One Hospital and never recovered.
Claims made in lawsuit
The lawsuit makes several claims against the Shelby County Jail and the jailers involved.
One of the claims involves what the lawsuit said is Shelby County Jail policy of conducting security rounds every 30 minutes.
It claims video showed that no guards set foot in the cell pod where Donald was held for an hour and 19 minutes before he was strangled. It claims that video shows inmates waving t-shirts and blankets trying to summon help as Donald and the other inmate fought, before the inmate strangled Donald. The suit claims the guard station for that area was also unmanned at that time.
The lawsuit also claims that video showed that from the time Donald was found unconscious at 12:23 a.m., it was 12:28 a.m. before the guards attempted to render aid.
According to the lawsuit, 44 inmates have died in Shelby County Sheriff’s Office custody, most at the jail at 201 Poplar, since January 2019.