'Ashamed of his conduct': First person charged in Walker County inmate's death appears in court
Warning: This article contains graphic information.
The former Walker County jailer charged in an inmate's death made his first court appearance Thursday.
Joshua Conner Jones pleaded not guilty in Birmingham federal court.
Last month, Jones entered into a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office for his role in Tony Mitchell's 2023 death following two weeks in the jail, along with an earlier assault on a different inmate.
"Connor is accepting responsibility for his part in this, he is ashamed of his conduct, and he wants to make things right," attorney Scott Brower said following the arraignment.
Brower fully expects additional people to soon be charged through pleas or indictments stemming from Mitchell's death.
"I believe that you will probably see indictments in within the next month against certain individuals, with Walker County Sheriff's Department Jail staff and potentially some of the nursing staff," Brower said.
Despite Thursday's required not-guilty plea at his first court appearance, Jones plans to plead guilty in the coming weeks to his role in the death of inmate Anthony "Tony" Mitchell, whose death was ruled a homicide due to "medical neglect."
According to the plea, Mitchell was arrested on Jan. 12, 2023, after he allegedly fired a gun at deputies who had arrived at his property to perform a mental health welfare check.
Upon arriving at the jail, Mitchell reportedly "could not walk or stand on his own" and was "disoriented, non-combative, and could not follow instructions."
Mitchell was then wrapped in a "suicide smock" despite there being no indication that he was suicidal and taken by wheelchair to a medical unit.
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Jones claims that, to the best of his knowledge, Mitchell was never medically evaluated until the morning of his death just two weeks later due to he and several co-conspirators "falsely telling medical staff" that Mitchell "was too combative to be evaluated when in truth that was not the case."
As his time in jail passed, Mitchell was "almost always naked, wet, cold, and covered in feces while lying on the cement floor without a mat or blanket." In Jones' words, Mitchell "looked really bad."
When Jones or his co-conspirators would comment or show concern about Mitchell's condition, another member of the conspiracy would dismiss them, saying things like "(expletive) him, he gets what he gets since he shot at cops."
Several comments were also made that Mitchell should have been killed so that they (correctional officers) didn't have to deal with him and that they would have killed him if they had responded instead of deputies.
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On the morning of Jan. 26, Jones was reportedly told that a nurse had ordered that Mitchell be transported to a hospital as soon as possible and that he could die if he was not.
That message was recounted to one of Jones co-conspirators who reportedly responded, "I'll tell you what, next time you're on the toilet taking (expletive), I'll call you to bother you with something unimportant."
Mitchell was eventually transported to Walker Baptist Medical Center Hospital in the back of a patrol car. Doctors would later take him off of life support at the request of his mother.
Mitchell's family filed a federal lawsuit after video came to light showing deputies carrying Mitchell to a car. The family says he spent two weeks in a holding cell and was possibly placed in a freezer. The employee who had this footage was fired by the department.
Following Thursday's hearing, one of Tony Mitchell's aunts simply said she is hoping for those involved in wrongdoing connected to her nephew's death to be held responsible.
This is a developing story and will be updated as information becomes available. Stay updated on the latest stories with the 米兰体育 13 app. You can download it here.