‘We killed him.’ Officer to plead guilty in detainee’s death in frigid cell, feds say
A man whose jail death was ruled a homicide spent the last two weeks of his life deteriorating in a cell that “was essentially a cement box” and “notoriously cold” in the winter, federal prosecutors wrote in new court filings.
Anthony “Tony” Mitchell, a 33-year-old pretrial detainee who was arrested during a welfare check, froze to death on Jan. 26, 2023, after officers denied him medical care, food and water at the Walker County Jail in Alabama, according to a lawsuit over his death. There, the officers are accused of purposely exposing him to freezing temperatures.
One of several officers named in the lawsuit, Joshua Conner Jones, was criminally charged and has now entered a guilty plea, court records from July 31 show.
Jones agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy against rights in Mitchell’s death and to one count of deprivation of rights under color of law in connection with beating another inmate with a can of chemical spray, according to his plea agreement.
The filing mentions five other officers, identified as co-conspirators, involved in Mitchell’s death.
“Collectively we did it. We killed him,” Jones said, prosecutors wrote in the document.
While the plea agreement doesn’t mention Mitchell by name, Jones’ defense attorney, W. Scott Brower, told McClatchy News it is about Mitchell.
“Jones has taken responsibility for his part in Mr. Mitchell’s death,” Brower said on Aug. 2.
“I expect this is the tip of the iceberg and in the coming weeks you will see multiple other individuals charged for the death of Mr. Mitchell as a result of the actions or inaction of employees of the Walker County Sheriff’s office,” Brower added.
The sheriff’s office, which runs the Walker County Jail, didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Aug. 2.
Mitchell’s official cause of death
Mitchell died of hypothermia and “sepsis resulting from infected injuries obtained during incarceration and medical neglect,” according to the certificate obtained by Mitchell’s family on Feb. 29, McClatchy News previously reported.
Jones’ plea agreement says he watched Mitchell’s deterioration, but he and his fellow officers did nothing to address Mitchell’s “obvious suffering.”
“As the time passed, (Mitchell) was almost always naked, wet, cold and covered in feces while lying on the cement floor without a mat or blanket,” the plea agreement says.
The floor “was even colder,” than the cold cell, prosecutors wrote.
The cell had no sink, toilet, running water or a bed, the plea agreement says. The only way detainees housed in the cell could use a bathroom or shower is if officers escorted them to the facility, according to the filing.
Detainees also “relied on officers to bring them water,” prosecutors wrote.
His ‘life was important’
Jones’ plea agreement says he believed Mitchell should have been taken to a hospital or a mental health facility instead of jail.
Two weeks before his death, Walker County sheriff’s deputies arrested Mitchell while responding to a request for a mental health welfare check, the plea agreement says. During the incident, Mitchell was accused of firing a gun while deputies were there, according to the filing.
When he arrived at jail, Mitchell “could not walk or stand on his own. He was disoriented, non-combative, and could not follow instructions,” prosecutors wrote.
After the officers struggled to dress him in a jail uniform, they left him naked and resorted to wrapping him in a suicide smock, according to the filing, which says there was no indication he “was suicidal.”
He was placed in a wheelchair and wheeled to the medical unit, where a nurse wanted to delay a medical screening, resulting in Mitchell being placed in the cement isolation cell known as BK5, prosecutors wrote.
During the first few days of Mitchell’s detainment, Jones and the other officers would comment on Mitchell, saying he “should have been killed because he shot at deputies,” the plea agreement says.
He never received medical attention until the morning of his death, according to the plea agreement, when Jones and other officers were aware that a nurse ordered Mitchell to be taken to a hospital.
One officer, named a co-conspirator, “dismissed the concerns,” saying “I’ll tell you what, next time you’re on the toilet taking a (expletive), I’ll call to bother you with something unimportant,” the plea agreement says.
Attorney Jon C. Goldfarb, who is representing Mitchell’s family in the civil case over his death, told McClatchy News that Jones’ plea agreement is a “sad and shocking admission” that confirms “what we always suspected from our own investigation.”
The civil case has been paused because of pending criminal and administrative investigations, court records show.
“The family hopes all those involved in the collective slow, brutal death of Tony Mitchell will be held accountable and no one else has to suffer as he did,” Goldfarb said on Aug. 2.
They also hope “that now everyone knows that Tony Mitchell’s life was important,” he said.
Jones is due in court on Aug. 15 for an arraignment, records show.
This story was originally published August 2, 2024 at 10:08 AM with the headline "‘We killed him.’ Officer to plead guilty in detainee’s death in frigid cell, feds say."
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