Jail staff allegedly let mentally disabled man starve to death, lawsuit says

Jamycheal Mitchell was arrested in April 2015 for allegedly shoplifting $5 worth of snacks from a convenience store

Jamycheal Mitchell tribute page/Facebook

The family of a mentally disabled man who died in a Virginia jail cell filed a lawsuit that alleges jailers let him starve.

Jamychael Mitchell, 24, spent four months in a Portsmouth jail before he died in August. He was diagnosed as “psychotic” and “delusional” when he was booked in the jail.

According to the lawsuit, Hampton Roads Regional Jail staff allegedly deprived Mr Mitchell of meals, shut off his water, and left him without clothes, shoes, or bedding. Feces had been smeared throughout his cell, and urine unflushed.

“Indicative of the depths of his mental illness and/or out of an effort by him to simply be noticed and helped,” the lawsuit reads, “Mitchell smeared feces on the Plexiglas window to his cell.”

A medical examiner determined Mr Mitchell’s 19 August death was caused by a “cardiac arrhythmia” and “wasting syndrome,” a condition where one suffers weight loss of at least 10 per cent of their total body weight. The lawsuit shows that the medical examiner said Mr Mitchell was “nearly cachectic”, or the lost body mass could not be recovered nutritionally.

HRRJ staff had claimed that Mr Mitchell’s condition resulted from his refusal to eat, but inmates said that he would eat “ravenously” when given food.

“He was unrecognizable,” Roxane Adams, Mr Mitchell's aunt who filed the lawsuit, told WKTR. “That's how bad it was. He was unrecognizable.”

“I asked them are you sure you have the right person,” she added. “I said this was not my nephew. Probably 90 pounds and about 70 years old.”

More than six-feet tall, Mr Mitchell was 144 pounds at the time of his death. He had lost between 40 and 50 pounds, according to documents.

The lawsuit was filed 10 May by Ms Adams, demanding a jury trial $60m in punitive damages.

Mr Mitchell was arrested in April after allegedly shoplifting $5 (£3.46) worth of snacks from a convenience store.