Macon man convicted of molesting 13-year-old girl severely beaten while in Bibb jail
Late one night in the Bibb County jail in the days after he was convicted of molesting a 13-year-old girl, inmate Bryan Christopher Smalls suffered what have been described as life-threatening injuries when he was attacked by inmates who learned of his crimes while watching local TV news.
Smalls, who is now 30 and serving a 49-year sentence in a Georgia state prison, was found guilty of child molestation and statutory rape on Nov. 11.
Jurors in the case against Smalls, which involved a victim he had met on the street in 2018 and later impregnated, deliberated for all of five minutes.
Word of the subsequent alleged jailhouse attack on Smalls emerged Wednesday at a probable cause hearing in Bibb Magistrate Court.
Sheriff’s Lt. Chauncey Eady testified that shortly before midnight on Nov. 16 — five days after Smalls’ conviction — jailers discovered the seriously injured Smalls who was housed in the lockup’s C-block.
Eady said Smalls was “bleeding all over his face and holding his stomach.”
Smalls, according to Eady, said that “several” fellow inmates had “found out about his charges” and “jumped on him.”
The lieutenant went on to say that Smalls figured some inmates from another wing apparently told the inmates in Smalls’ cellblock about seeing Smalls “on the news” on local television.
It is not uncommon for inmates involved in sex crimes, especially those involving minors, to be targeted by other inmates. In August 2018, an ex-church youth leader who molested two boys was beaten by other inmates at the Bibb jail.
Steps are taken to ensure that sex-crime charges against those being held are not broadly known, including clearing the jail’s courtroom of other inmates when cases involving sex crimes are heard.
“It is our duty to keep (inmates) safe and we do the best we can,” Sheriff David Davis told The Telegraph.
However, Davis said incidents like the one involving Smalls are “sometimes difficult to prevent.”
The night of the alleged assault, Smalls was rushed to a nearby hospital where he later underwent what Eady described as “life-threatening” surgeries.
In a later interview with a sheriff’s investigator, Smalls said that in the moments before he was beaten that he had been talking to another inmate.
“Next thing he knew,” Eady said at Wednesday’s hearing, “he was hit from the side by inmates.”
The extent of Smalls’ injuries was not clear, but he later identified some of the alleged attackers from photographs, Eady said. Smalls is now serving his sentence at a prison in Dodge County.
One of the Bibb inmates Smalls identified as his attackers, Devontae Stubbs, 27, had been incarcerated since March on an apparent probation violation.
Stubbs has since been charged with aggravated assault in connection with Smalls’ attack.
Stubbs has also been accused of arson for allegedly starting a fire in the jail.
