Jail death from 2022 declared a homicide

Apr. 7—The wife of a Raleigh County man who died at Southern Regional Jail in October 2022 said she feels vindicated after learning that his death is being investigated as a homicide.

"I was right," said Malinda "Linda" Harmon Cunningham, the wife of Douglas Alan Cunningham who died at Southern Regional Jail (SRJ) on Oct. 29, 2022.

According to a death certificate from the state medical examiner's office, Douglas Cunningham was assaulted and suffered injuries to his head, chest and abdomen, which contributed to his death.

Douglas Cunningham's final manner of death is listed as homicide; however, his cause of death is listed as coronary artery disease.

Coronary artery disease is caused by plaque buildup in the walls of the arteries that supply blood to the heart and other parts of the body, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Other conditions which contributed to Douglas Cunningham's death as listed in the death certificate include hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes mellitus, blunt impact to head and chest and abdominal injuries.

In a section which asks to describe how the injuries occurred, the death certificate states that Douglas Cunningham was "assaulted by other(s)" at SRJ.

It is unknown when this assault took place, but the certificate states that Douglas Cunningham was "found" at 2:57 p.m. Oct. 29.

Raleigh County Prosecuting Attorney Ben Hatfield told The Register-Herald Thursday that Cunningham's death is "under investigation" and that "possible charges are being considered."

Thirteen people, including Douglas Cunningham, died at SRJ in 2022.

Since then, several families have spoken out saying it was because of the dangerous and inhumane conditions at SRJ that their loved one died in the jail.

Much like Cunningham's case, Miranda Smith said she believes her father, Alvis Shrewsbury, was beaten to death while at SRJ because an autopsy revealed that he had gastrointestinal bleeding at the time of his death in September 2022.

In the case of Quantez Burks, who died March 1, 2022, Kimberly Burks, his mother, said a private autopsy determined that he died of a heart attack after sustaining blunt force trauma to his body and fractured bones in his forearm and wrist along with other injuries.

In both cases, the families say the state informed them that the cause of death for Burks and Shrewsbury was natural causes.

Kimberly Burks said she is still waiting on the state's completed autopsy of her son.

Linda Cunningham said she is still coming to terms with this new information after only receiving her husband's death certificate a few weeks ago from a Beckley funeral home.

She added that it was an employee at the funeral home who informed her that her husband's death was listed as a homicide.

"She read me the (death certificate) and asked if I wanted to hear the cause of death and I said, 'Well, go ahead, might as well.' And then she said, 'It was homicide,'" said Linda Cunningham, recalling the conversation.

"... I asked her, I said, 'Does that mean they killed him?' She said, 'Yes, ma'am, they murdered him."

In December when Linda Cunningham first spoke with The Register-Herald, she said she had a gut feeling that her husband did not die of natural causes.

Initially she thought he may have died because he wasn't receiving his medications, which is something SRJ has been accused of several times.

During a murder sentencing in December in Raleigh County Circuit Court, Judge Andrew Dimlich granted a request from a defense attorney for his client to be moved from SRJ to Northern Regional Jail after receiving reports that his client was not receiving his medications at SRJ.

These allegations as well as others are part of a federal class action lawsuit against SRJ, the past and current state officials running the jail and the counties that pay to house inmates at SRJ.

Linda Cunningham said Douglas was on medication for his heart, high blood pressure, diabetes, depression and anxiety.

Linda Cunningham said she later heard that someone in the jail "hurt" her husband, which the death certificate confirms.

"I feels a little good. It feels like I'm not no dummy," said Linda Cunningham to The Register-Herald on Thursday when asked how it feels to know that her instincts were right.

But even though her initial suspicions were confirmed, she said she's still in shock by the news.

"It's gonna take a while for me to get back to myself. I don't know if I ever do," Linda Cunningham said.

According to the death certificate, Douglas Cunningham died at age 79.

His body was found at SRJ at 2:57 p.m. Oct. 29. He was pronounced dead at Beckley Appalachian Regional Hospital at 3:44 p.m.

Linda Cunningham said it wasn't until the afternoon of the next day, likely 24 hours later, that she received a call from the jail about her husband's death.

She added that the information in the death certificate relating to his time of death is misleading because she was told her husband died in a cell at SRJ.

"That's not right. He didn't die (at the hospital)," she said. "He was already dead when he got there."

There is a box to check if someone is dead on arrival, but Douglas Cunningham's death certificate states that he died in the hospital's emergency room.

The death certificate further states that it was filed on Nov. 3 but amended on Feb. 17 to reflect homicide as the final manner of death.