By Angie Thompson/senior reporter
TIFTON
Sat, May 17 2008
—
Results of an autopsy conducted at a GBI crime lab will hopefully conclusively determine what caused the death Tuesday of a City of Tifton inmate housed at the Tift County Jail who became ill while on a work detail March 17. James Anthony “Tony” Harrell, 39, of Tifton, died Tuesday at the Medical Center of Georgia in Macon.
According to members of Harrell’s family, Harrell suffered a broken jaw, internal bruising, head trauma and several other broken bones and was admitted to Tift Regional Medical Center and then transported to the Medical Center of Georgia in Macon the morning of the incident. Harrell’s uncle, Tommy Walker, told the Tifton Gazette Tuesday afternoon that Harrell’s brain was swelling and his body temperature had spiked to 110 degrees and he wasn’t expected to live much longer.
Walker said members of Harrell’s family had questions about how the injuries that caused Harrell’s death had occurred. Rumors were circulating that Harrell was involved in a fight at the jail the night of March 16 or morning of March 17 prior to his signing out for the work detail on a City of Tifton Sanitation truck.
According to Lt. Porter Jackson, a City of Tifton Police detective, the investigation into the incident continues. He said a member of Harrell’s family had contacted him and told him that Harrell was severely beaten at the jail and then sent on the work detail. Jackson said he and other TPD detectives were working to determine whether or not that occurred.
“From information on the injuries we were made aware of from the hospital in Macon, we don’t believe that could have happened (at the jail) and he been able to walk out of the jail period without someone noticing,” Jackson said.
During an interview Wednesday in City of Tifton Manager Mike Vollmer’s office, Jackson said he had contacted Mike Lewis of the GBI and explained to him the findings so far in the case. Jackson said Lewis told him, that with the information gained so far, the case didn’t look criminal.
“We would have preferred they be involved,” said Tifton Mayor Jamie Cater during the interview.
Jackson said the GBI crime lab has completed Harrell’s autopsy, but the results aren’t expected for several weeks.
According to the initial incident report by Tifton Police Officer Christopher Spires responded to a 911 call at 7:53 a.m. March 17 that a city inmate had fainted and had blood coming form his ear. Spires wrote in his report that when he arrived at the intersection of Hartley Avenue and Hickory Drive he saw Harrell lying on the shoulder of the street. When he got out of his patrol car, he noticed a puddle of blood on the cement between Old Omega Road and Hickory Drive. He noted that it seemed Harrell was having a seizure.
Spires also wrote that Harrell didn’t respond when his name was called; that when he checked Harrell’s pupils with a light he found them fixed and they didn’t move; that Harrell’s pulse was “very fast-paced”; that blood was seeping from Harrell’s left ear and a clear liquid was in his right ear; that there were no other signs of injuries; and that Harrell was breathing.
Spires said EMS arrived and took over Harrell’s treatment and he then spoke with Frank Clark, who said was on the back of the truck where Harrell had been working. Spires said Clark told him that Harrell had picked up a couple of bags of trash from the city’s trash can at 410 Hickory Drive and thrown them in the truck. Clark told Spires he thought Harrell had gotten on the truck after that, but he wasn’t sure. Clark said that all he knew was that the truck traveled toward Gregg Isaac’s and dumped a can and that is where he observed Harrell walking west across Hartley and then fall to the ground.
Charles Gray was driving the “City Sanitation Ear Loader” at the time, according to Spires’ report. Spires said Gray told him “that Harrell had been doing a good job on the truck and had picked up a couple of bags of trash out of the can at 410 Hickory Drive and threw them into the truck.” Gray said that he thought Harrell had then gotten onto the side of the truck, but he doesn’t know what happened to him. He said he went down toward Greg Isaac’s where he turned the truck around to get a can and then headed east on Old Omega Road. It was at that time Gray said he saw Harrell collapse and the workers went to check on him.
In a Wednesday afternoon interview with Tift County Sheriff Gary Vowell and Jail Administrator Capt. Jerry Lipsey, it was learned that Harrell was booked into the jail on March 11 and charged with simple assault (family violence) by the Tifton Police Department. Lipsey said Harrell was assigned to B Pod, which, according to Lipsey, is an open dormitory where misdemeanor-charged, non-violent offenders are housed. The pod has a common day area as well as a common cell area, Lipsey said. Lipsey said the routine medical screening performed on inmates at booking was performed on Harrell and there are no records to indicate that a fight that ultimately involved Harrell had occurred during the time he was incarcerated prior to his becoming ill on the work detail.
“We have no medical complaints and nothing on Harrell except for routine tuberculosis screenings and such,” Lipsey said.
Lipsey said the City of Tifton approves inmates to work on details and the municipal judge tells the inmate in court whether or not he/she can work on a detail. Those city inmates who are approved to work outside the jail are required to sign out before exiting the jail every morning. Vowell said that city and county inmates work on separate work details and that county inmates’ details usually included cleaning and cutting grass around the Law Enforcement Center and working some at the court house or at the animal shelter.
“In my opinion, I wouldn’t assign trustees to work on trash trucks,” Vowell said.
TPD Chief Jim Smith said that city inmates have been working on various outside details for over 20 years and there had never been a serious incident involving those inmates.
Lipsey illustrated on his computer that the surveillance video tape that captures activity in the booking area only stores the records for a week. The booking area video would, Lipsey said, have revealed Harrell signing out and exiting the jail the morning he fell ill.
Vowell said he had interviewed the trustees who shared the common cell area with Harrell and “there was no indication” of any incident involving Harrell since he had been incarcerated March 11.
“There is a report done in the case of an altercation and if they are on detail, they are taken off of detail and put on lock down until the investigation is completed and there is a hearing before a hearing officer,” Vowell said.
If an inmate has a complaint that occurred outside the booking area where actions are taped or outside the view of a detention officer, Vowell and Lipsey said the inmate can file a request form stating what happened or go directly to an officer with the report.
Lipsey said Sgt. Renee Kelly was on duty the morning of March 17. Kelly, who was personally interviewed in Lipsey’s office, said she had actually stepped inside an office to complete paperwork when Harrell signed out and left that day. She said she received a telephone call from EMS that morning requesting Harrell’s medical information and his family contact information. She said she was informed that Harrell had suffered head injuries. Lipsey said that at 9:30 a.m. that day, the City of Tifton gave written release of Harrell from the jail to jail officials.
Officer Spencer Wynn, who was called into Lipsey’s office, said he was on duty that morning by 6 a.m. and he made sure Harrell had an arm band and signed out properly. He said he didn’t notice that Harrell was in any sort of distress and he didn’t notice any visible injuries on Harrell’s body.
“To me, he (Harrell) never said too much. He wasn’t one of the really outspoken ones,” Wynn said. “I watched him walk out.”
Jerry Hurley, a current jail inmate, said in an interview that he slept side-by-side in G House in B Pod with Harrell. The night of March 16, he said, he, Harrell and other inmates “fixed goulash,” ate it and then between 8:30 and 9 p.m., Harrell went to bed to rest.
“He (Harrell) didn’t watch television that much,” Hurley said.
Hurley said he would have known if any incident had happened that night at the jail and he knew of none. He also said he felt free to discuss any incident that happened with the newspaper.
“I’m sure it is was just an accident and I’m very sorry for the family,” Vowell said.
A search of calls conducted by E-911 Assistant Director Christine Day Wednesday afternoon revealed that two calls were received concerning the incident and both were made by a City of Tifton Sanitation office employee. The first call, received by a dispatcher at 7:53 a.m., was from the sanitation office employee who said, “I’ve got an inmate that has fell out working on the back of one of our trucks at 17th and Hartley and I need some EMTs there.”
It is clear from the audio of the call that the office employee was listening to sanitation workers on the radio and transferring that information to the dispatcher. The woman calling from the Sanitation Department’s office then told the dispatcher that sanitation workers were telling her that “they just said he had fell out and is bleeding from his ears.” She then asked one of the sanitation workers at the scene of the incident to stand by until EMTs arrived. A sanitation worker confirmed Harrell was bleeding. One of the sanitation workers could be heard on the tape stating that he didn’t know what had happened to Harrell. The second call from the office worker in sanitation to the dispatcher minutes later was a request that police be sent to the scene. The dispatcher confirmed that an officer was already in route.
Cater said that he and Vollmer flew to Macon the day after Harrell was admitted to the medical center there to visit with the family and as soon as they learned the seriousness of Harrell’s injuries. He said that when they arrived, the staff at the hospital notified them that the family had left to eat. Before the family returned, Cater said, he and Vollmer got word of impending bad weather and that they needed to leave immediately. Cater said he and Vollmer left a packet of medical insurance information for Harrell’s family with nurses at the center, along with their business cards.
“None of us can speak for how the family feels, but we certainly send our condolences and sympathy,” Cater said.
Vollmer said the City of Tifton paid for the Harrellson family’s five-night stay at the Radisson Crown Plaza in Macon, which is a few blocks from the hospital.
“We wanted to do that as a gesture of good will after talking with the family and learning of the hardship that traveling back and forth to Macon has caused,” Vollmer said.
Wednesday after, some members of the Harrell family visited with Vollmer and City Attorney Greg Sowell. Sowell said the family seemed most concerned with funeral arrangements and asked the city for assistance with burial expenses. Sowell said members of Harrell’s family also indicated that they had acquired an attorney from Macon to advise them in the case but he couldn’t say whether a suit against the city is pending.
“We are very respectful of the situation that they just lost a loved one,” Sowell said. “We indicated our sympathy and concern for their family.”
(For full information on Harrell’s funeral arrangements and survivors, see the complete obituary on page ____.)
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