A coroner has concluded that the death of an Alabama man in a frigid jail cell was the result of homicide by medical neglect, CBS 42 reports.
Anthony “Tony” Mitchell, 33, died January 26, 2023, in the Walker County Jail after police arrested him earlier that month during a welfare check.
This week, a lawyer for Mitchell’s loved ones released a copy of his death certificate, which shows that Mitchell died from hypothermia and “sepsis resulting from infected injuries obtained during incarceration and medical neglect,” according to the television station.
In a lawsuit against Walker County Sheriff Nick Smith and other defendants, Mitchell’s family alleges that jail officers intentionally directed “extremely cold” air to the man’s cell, which officials in the facility informally referred to as the “freezer,” according to McClatchy News.
The suit further alleges that jailers denied Mitchell medical care for upwards of two weeks and that while detained, he was surrounded by fecal matter despite having open wounds. Mitchell also was denied water for several days, according to the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
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The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said in January that it was investigating Mitchell’s death. The FBI also is involved, according to ABC 33/40. Criminal charges could be forthcoming, WBRC-TV reports.
On Jan. 12, 2023, Mitchell’s cousin called 911 because Mitchell had come to his home in an apparent delusional state and was in “serious need of psychiatric help,” McClatchy News reports. When deputies responded, Mitchell was in the front yard and fired a gun toward deputies before fleeing into the woods.
The lawsuit alleges that after Mitchell was arrested, he was abused in jail for two weeks before being hospitalized with an internal body temperature of 72 degrees Fahrenheit.
“This is the worst case of inmate abuse I have ever seen,” the family’s lawyer, Jon Goldfarb, told AL.com.
The suit alleges that deputies brought Mitchell to the hospital – instead of calling for an ambulance – “over five hours after deputies were captured on video laughing and joking while Tony lay naked on the cement floor of his cell in obvious need of emergency medical treatment,” the complaint states, according to McClatchy News.
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[Feature Photo: Anthony Mitchell/Walker County Sheriff’s Office]
