Deonte Shaw remembers the late October day he arrived at the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond. He remembers working in the kitchen, spending time with his cell mate and the white sheet that separated their cell from the crowded jail pod.
What Shaw doesn’t remember is the beating.
Denote Shaw wipes his eyes on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, in Jackson, as he listens to his partner recount how he suffered a traumatic brain injury at the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond. Credit: Aaron Lampley/Mississippi TodayOn the night of Nov. 12, inmates attacked Shaw in his cell, according to hospital medical records Shaw provided Mississippi Today. Guards discovered Shaw the next morning, barely conscious and with bruises on his face. Hours passed before the infirmary sent Shaw to the emergency room, where he was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and put on a ventilator.
His girlfriend, Ife Myles, didn’t know about the beating, and she wondered why he had stopped calling. She sought answers from the jail, but weeks went by before a friend told her in late December that Shaw had been severely injured.
On New Year’s Eve, after a week of frequent trips to Raymond, Myles got a call. “Bring a wheelchair,” a jailer told her. Shaw could go home.
This summer, Shaw, 31, became the latest in dozens of people to sue Hinds County since 2015 when U.S. Justice Department officials declared conditions at the jail unconstitutional, including the failure to protect inmates from violence. His attorneys filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Jackson – five days after inmates in Raymond stomped to death an 18-year-old, whose killing and last breaths were caught on video and shared on social media.
Lawsuit alleges widespread jail violence
The lawsuit alleges that Shaw’s rights were violated by the county’s failure to run a jail free from widespread violence and is demanding the county pay damages, including Shaw’s medical expenses.
The couple wants accountability. But so far, Hinds County and the sheriff’s department have ignored public records requests from Shaw’s attorney that might explain Shaw’s injuries, including security videos.
In court filings, Jessica Malone, an attorney hired by the county, denies Shaw was beaten, instead alleging that he “suffered a medical emergency, was found unresponsive, administered Narcan and then provided with medical treatment.” Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones won’t comment on litigation, and Wendell France, the Maryland-based court-appointed receiver currently overseeing the detention center, is barred by the federal court from making statements to the media.
Medical records reviewed by Mississippi Today mention that Shaw had ingested drugs – something Shaw denies – but describe his “mechanism of injury” as assault. According to the medical report, the only drug in Shaw’s system was benzodiazepine, which paramedics gave him before he was admitted to the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
Myles, 35, cried when she recounted the moment she finally laid eyes on Shaw. Shaw cried, too.
“It’s not me, like how I used to be,” Shaw said.
Ife Myles, right, sits with her partner Deonte Shaw at Khalaf and Nguyen Law Firm on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, in Jackson. The couple spoke about a lawsuit against Hinds County after Shaw suffered a traumatic brain injury in November 2025 while being held at the county’s detention center in Raymond. Credit: Aaron Lampley/Mississippi TodayThe couple met six years ago when Shaw worked as a cook at Waffle House. Shaw took Myles’ order – a cheesesteak melt and a bowl of grits, then asked for her phone number. He came over for her birthday, Myles said, “and he never left.”
The alleged beating couldn’t break their bond. Myles took Shaw to physical therapy, bathed him and fed him.
Now she’s helping Shaw prepare for the day he might have to testify in court.
Traffic stop leads to jail
Shaw had just paid $1,000 for a used car when Capitol Police pulled him over on Oct. 24 on a traffic stop. Shaw knew he was going to jail. Months earlier, a Hinds County Circuit Court judge had issued a bench warrant after he skipped drug court.
At Raymond, Shaw called Myles as often as he could. Myles tried to cheer him up by showing off her new red hair. That conversation was on the afternoon of Nov. 12, hours before Shaw says he was beaten.
Then Shaw went silent.
By Thanksgiving, Myles was concerned. She called an official with the Hinds County drug court who told her that Shaw might be at the state mental hospital, where a judge had ordered him to undergo rehab. But the hospital told Myles that Shaw wasn’t there.
“I got depressed,” Myles said. “I was like, did he run away?”
On Dec. 20, Myles heard from her legal husband, who she had separated from years earlier. He was also in jail. He knew Shaw, and the two men had chosen to be cell mates for safety reasons. Her estranged husband told her he saw Shaw being beaten.
The next day, a friend whose boyfriend was also in jail gave her similar news.
Using a friend’s phone, Myles began recording herself calling the jail. On recordings shared with Mississippi Today, voices from both sides of the conversation were audible.
On one phone call, Myles spoke to a man who introduced himself as a jail supervisor. Myles explained that she hadn’t heard from Shaw in over a month and was considering reporting him missing after learning he had been “severely beaten.”
“OK, I don’t know who told you all that,” the supervisor said on the recording. “Shaw is good.”
But when Myles asked which zone Shaw was in, the supervisor responded that he couldn’t say. “That’s violating the HIPAA,” he said, referring to the federal law meant to protect sensitive health information.
“Jail is public record!” Myles yelled into the phone.
After days of driving to Raymond, Myles finally got confirmation of what she’d suspected. On Dec. 29, a jail captain told her Shaw was in the infirmary. But she was not allowed to see him.
On New Year’s Eve, a Hinds County judge signed Shaw’s release. Later that day, Myles received the call that she could get Shaw from jail.
She brought a wheelchair as instructed. She borrowed it from a neighbor. She wasn’t told why she’d need one.
A tear rolls down Deonte Shaw’s face on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, in Jackson, as he recounts how he suffered abuse during his time at the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond. Credit: Aaron Lampley/Mississippi TodayAs she was driving, Myles’ phone rang. A man identified himself as the jail administrator and told Myles that a “doctor report” showed Shaw had taken drugs, passed out, hit his head and had a stroke in the hospital, according to another recording reviewed by Mississippi Today.
Myles said she knew it was a lie. The caller invited her to speak with an investigator.
Inside the waiting room, Myles’ heart raced. Then the door opened.
“The first thing I saw was his feet,” she said. “He didn’t have his shoes on.”
Shaw was slumped in a wheelchair, she recalled. He was drooling, his left arm curled on his chest. His hair was overgrown, and he smelled.
Myles fell to her knees. Shaw opened his eyes. “He started to kiss my forehead,” Myles said. “And I said, ‘He knows it’s me.’”
Regaining independence
Myles keeps videos and images in a folder she refers to as life after disaster.
Unsettled by the jail’s assertion that Shaw wasn’t beaten, Myles knew she needed to document everything.
She has pictures of Shaw at rehab as he learned to walk again. She has videos of Shaw bedridden, struggling to eat and thrashing his skinny legs – signs, Myles said, that he was trying to get stronger. She has recordings of him using muffled, angry and urgent sounds while trying to communicate with her and his children.
“Leave me alone,” Shaw says in one video, slurring his words.
By February, he had regained some independence. One day, Myles said he rolled out of bed, stood up and began to walk on his own. Soon, he was staying up all night listening to music, sounding out the words to his favorite songs from Memphis rappers like BEO Lil Kenny.
Now the next grueling step: seeking justice.
Through connections she’d made years ago at a legal clinic, Myles found Shaw a pair of attorneys – Jad Khalaf and his law partner, Ammie Nguyen.
Khalaf said he’s read reports from a federal monitor – dating back 10 years – detailing conditions at the Hinds County jail and was struck by the sluggish progress in securing the safety of inmates.
“All the while, more people are dying or being severely beaten,” he said. “It’s ridiculous.”
Khalaf said he’s seen Shaw make a remarkable recovery since their first meeting earlier this year.
“He didn’t say much,” Khalaf said. “He barely could walk.”
Because he has trouble speaking, Shaw is still a man of few words. He still has seizures. His kids still ask, “What’s wrong with Daddy?”
Shaw worries he’ll never fully recover.
“I still can’t run,” he said, but then added he won’t stop trying.
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