From jailer firings to inmate deaths, this timeline outlines a chaotic year at Meck jail
State investigations of the Mecklenburg County Jail found multiple violations connected to the May deaths of two inmates.
The critical reports by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services into the deaths of Karon Golightly and John Devin Haley, which The Charlotte Observer obtained last month, add new controversies to what has been a chaotic year at the state’s largest local detention facility:
March 24: Jail staff mistakenly released a 16-year-old inmate from the Juvenile Detention Center in north Charlotte.
May 2: Inmate Sherrod Davidson stabbed a jail sergeant “three times with a ‘homemade weapon’” at the uptown detention center, the Sheriff’s Office said. Davidson, 30, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon of a government official, among other charges.
May 14: Karon Golightly, 20, was found unresponsive at the jail, the Sheriff’s Office said. No cause of death has been released as of Oct. 12.
Mecklenburg jail violated regulations in deaths of 2 inmates, state documents show
May 22: John Devin Haley, 41, was found unconscious in his cell just before 11 a.m. Jail medical staff performed CPR, but he was declared dead minutes later, Sheriff Garry McFadden said. No signs of foul play were found, and “all preliminary reports indicate suicide,” the sheriff’s statement said. According to his obituary, Haley had struggled with addiction and mental health issues.
June 7: Jail officer Kyle Harris, 28, was arrested and charged with multiple sex crimes in connection with the alleged sexual assault of a transgender inmate. McFadden announced Harris’ firing later in the day.
June 22: Emerson Healy, 55, was found unresponsive in his cell and pronounced dead at a hospital, one day after being taken into custody. Healy had been arrested by G4S Special Police, a security firm hired by the Charlotte Area Transit System, and charged with six counts of carrying a concealed weapon and one count of failure to provide proof of proper fare. Among the weapons Healy carried was a machete, jail records show.
Healy’s death is the 24th at the jail since 2008, including five in 2018 and three last year, according to Sheriff’s Office data.
June 25: James Holmes, 42, cut a female jail officer with “a homemade weapon” and bit her as she made a medication pass, the Sheriff’s Office said. A Sept. 7 court filing indicates that Holmes, who is wheelchair-bound, spit at the officer during an argument, and the officer used physical force on him. Holmes used a shank during the fight and claimed self-defense, the filing says.
Prosecutors dropped the resulting charges, including assault with a deadly weapon on a government official, because they were unsure they could convince a jury that Holmes did not use the shank in self-defense, according to Mecklenburg Assistant District Attorney Kelly Stetzer.
July 9: McFadden fired Ellis Chambers after an altercation the jailer had with inmate James McIllwaine on May 23, which led to a criminal summons for simple assault for both individuals, according to the Sheriff’s Office. An investigation found that Chambers’ actions didn’t abide by his training, went against policy and were “criminal in nature,” McFadden said. No charges against Chambers appear on the Sheriff’s Office website as of Oct. 12.
July 27: The Sheriff’s Office announces that jail personnel will have to work two extra days each month because of staffing shortages. The shortages are due to “a multitude of reasons,” including vacant positions, illnesses, ongoing training, and attrition.
Aug. 27: Two days after the jail reported 61 inmates had tested positive for COVID-19, the number of cases nearly doubled to 115, according to emails obtained by the Observer in which Mecklenburg government officials updated attorneys with clients in the jail on the rapid spread of the virus.
The number of cases is the largest since December, when a similar outbreak — fueled by jailers returning from the Thanksgiving holiday — sickened more than 100 inmates.
Between July 31 and Sept. 28, the jail had 240 COVID-positive cases — the worst among congregate living facilities in the county, Mecklenburg health officials said.
Sept. 13: Deputy Gregory Hilliard was fired after he was arrested and charged with driving while impaired on Sept. 11, the Sheriff’s Office said. Hilliard was not working in any law enforcement capacity at the time of his arrest.
Sept. 22: McFadden fired jail officer Chandler Craig after detention center security video showed she assaulted a handcuffed inmate following an argument on Sept. 13. Craig was charged with simple assault, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Mecklenburg County denied an Observer request for a copy of the video.
Sept. 28: McFadden terminated Branden Williamson after the jail officer’s arrest on felony assault charges stemming from an aggravated assault incident the day before in Richland County, S.C.
Oct. 6: Jail officer Karen Payton was fired and faced criminal charges after being accused of having sex with an inmate, McFadden said. Payton also provided the same inmate with tobacco, another violation, the sheriff said. “There is no place for this type of conduct or behavior in our detention facilities or agency,” McFadden said.
Observer staff writers Jonathan Limehouse and Joe Marusak, and former intern Daniel Egitto, contributed to this story.
