The mother of an 18-year-old who was stomped to death in the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond has filed a wrongful death claim against the sheriff’s office, alleging negligence resulted in her son’s gruesome killing.
Janice Bradley joined her attorney, Dennis Sweet III, at a Thursday press conference in calling for a full accounting of the events that led to the beating death of her son, Mielun Butler, two days after he was booked into Raymond on July 1.
“My son had a whole life ahead of him,” Bradley said, as she sat next to a poster of him depicted in angel wings.
A video of the beating circulated on Facebook, showing a person wearing black sandals stomping on Butler’s limp and bloody body as someone ordered Butler to say, “Long live Melvin.”
“The sheriff in this case has fallen down,” Sweet said. “That’s a young man in his custody. He’s responsible. There’s no dodging that.”
Butler was being held in Raymond on charges of killing 32-year-old Melvin Edwards at a south Jackson apartment complex known for violence. At Butler’s initial appearance on July 2, Municipal Court Judge Jeffery Reynolds set a $1 million bond, an amount the judge acknowledged the teenager could not post.
Hinds County Coroner Jeremiah Howard told Mississippi Today last week that the teenager “had shoe prints all over his head.”
The Monday after Butler’s killing, Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones held a press conference to announce that his office and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation had launched separate inquiries. Later that week, Jones told Mississippi Today that a detention officer had been placed on administrative leave with pay.
In response to Thursday’s press conference, Jones said in a written statement that “certain allegations and preliminary findings” had led him to contact the FBI. Mississippi Today is awaiting comment from an FBI spokesperson.
“I remain committed to transparency, but only in a manner that does not compromise the integrity of the investigations or the pursuit of factual, evidence-based conclusions,” Jones said Thursday.
Sweet said he believes culpability for Butler’s brutal death extends beyond just one staff member. He said Butler fought for his life, causing a commotion that jail staff should have heard and responded to. He also questioned how the cellphone that recorded Butler’s beating was brought into the jail.
Last year, Jones ceded operational control of the jail to a federal receiver. Earlier this week, the sheriff confirmed to Mississippi Today that the jail was on lockdown for an operation, but he would not reveal the nature of the operation or its findings.
Bradley said her son, who had been assigned a public defender, intended to prove his innocence. Sweet said that as a pre-trial detainee, Butler was entitled to his day in court. A Jackson Police Department spokesperson said the agency did not wish to respond.
Sweet pounded the table as he condemned any contention that Butler deserved to die because he had been charged with a violent crime.
“What’s happening with us and these principles that you’re presumed innocent?” he asked.
Bradley said she wanted justice for her son and for all mothers who have lost children to violence at Raymond. Six people died at the jail last year, including a homicide, a drug overdose and another suspected drug overdose, according to the Marshall Project.
The mother told reporters that she chose not to watch the video so she would not remember her son that way. She recalled Butler as bright and hard-working, saying he had recently graduated from Lanier High School in Jackson and was working at aWendy’s.
Butler had carpentry, welding and forklift certificates, and he intended to study business at Hinds Community College, she said.
Sweet said he called on the FBI to investigate the social media posts and referenced the recent federal investigation into corruption in Jackson that ensnared former Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens and other elected officials.
“If the FBI can spend time on conspiracies out here, they can spend time on this,” he said.
READ MORE: Teen stomped to death in Hinds County jail, coroner says
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