RICHARD JAVIS JOHNSON

Associated Press
Posted on Tue, Sep. 18, 2007

JACKSON SAYS JAIL DEATH NOT SUICIDE

Civil rights leader calls for federal investigation, citing signs of beating

FOUNTAIN INN, S.C. --The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Monday questioned a police account of the death of a 25-year-old black man who was found hanging by a T-shirt in a jail cell, alleging the man was beaten and did not take his own life.

After touring the police station where Richard Javis Johnson died in July, Jackson said he wants a full investigation by federal officials.

"You see more and more of these tortures and beatings and almost nothing from the Department of Justice," Jackson said. "The lights in the Department of Justice have gone off."

Johnson was found hanging by a T-shirt in a holding cell less than an hour after he was arrested on a drug charge, Fountain Inn Police Chief Keith Morton said. A cause of death has not been determined and pathology and toxicology tests were pending Monday, Morton said.

Morton said the police have nothing to hide.

"Just like Mr. Jackson, I was not there when this happened," Morton said. "I think that it's very unwise to attempt to make a determination on a cause of death based on post-autopsy photos." Morton said the State Law Enforcement Division is investigating the incident.

Jackson said he viewed photos of the body taken after the autopsy that show bruising "inconsistent with suicide."

"You saw Taser burns on his body. You saw other marks on his body. You can see where he apparently was beaten," Jackson said in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday.

The photos were provided by Johnson's mother. Jackson said he did not have the photos examined by a medical examiner or other professional.

Johnson's mother told The Greenville (S.C.) News there was "no way" her son took his own life.

"He had problems. We've all got problems, but he wasn't going to go out like that," Hattie Anita Johnson said.

A phone number for Hattie Anita Johnson could not be found.

Jackson and his Rainbow PUSH Coalition are touring South Carolina to encourage residents to register and vote in next year's presidential primaries. Jackson won South Carolina's primary in 1984 and 1988.

The 12-stop tour started Saturday in Spartanburg and will end Wednesday in Aiken.

RICHARD JAVAS JOHNSON

Posted on Tue, Jul. 31, 2007
GREENVILLE

COCAINE SUSPECT HANGS HIMSELF IN CELL

A man authorities knew well because of his multiple drug arrests was found hanged in a police station holding cell shortly after he was arrested, police said Monday.

Richard Javas Johnson, 25, was arrested Sunday night on charges of crack cocaine possession and brought to the Fountain Inn police station, where he had done maintenance work as part of a community service program, Chief Keith Morton said.

Johnson was placed alone in a holding cell. While police processed a man arrested with him, Johnson made a noose with his long-sleeved T-shirt, Morton said.

Johnson was taken to a hospital, where he died, Greenville County Deputy Coroner Ken Coppins said.

JOHNNY BREWER

Posted on Tue, Jul. 24, 2007
By ADAM BEAM

INMATE FOUND DEAD IN PRISON CELL

Johnny Brewer once escaped while serving life sentence for murder

Johnny Brewer, who managed to beat the death penalty in 1999 only to escape from a maximum security prison six years later with the help of an Episcopal bishop’s son, was found dead in his cell Monday morning.

Brewer, 41, was hanging from a bed sheet in his solitary confinement cell at 2:15 a.m. inside Kirkland Correctional Institution on Broad River Road, the Department of Corrections said.

Brewer was pronounced dead at 2:50 a.m., after corrections officers tried to revive him.

Evidence points to a suicide, Richland County Coroner Gary Watts said. The Corrections Department is investigating.

Brewer and another inmate, convicted kidnapper Jimmy Causey, escaped from the Broad River Correctional Institution on Nov. 1, 2005, by hiding in a Dumpster that was carried off on a trash truck.

The men were aided by another inmate, Stephen Beckham, who helped make dummies out of clothes and toilet paper to fool Corrections officials during head counts.

Beckham, son of a former Episcopal Bishop of Upper South Carolina, is serving a life sentence for hiring a contract killer to kill his wife, Vickie Lander Beckham, who was the daughter of state senator Jim Lander.

Beckham was later indicted by a Richland County grand jury for his part in the escape plot, according to a letter from 5th Circuit Solicitor Barney Giese to SLED Chief Robert Stewart and obtained by The State newspaper through a Freedom of Information Act request.

That case is pending.

Brewer and Causey rode in the trash truck until they jumped out as the vehicle was turning onto Percival Road from Spears Creek Church Road.

After getting rid of their clothes, the men walked to Clemson Road and got a ride to the Leesburg Road exit on Interstate-77. An ex-girlfriend of Causey spotted the pair walking through the Greenlawn Cemetery and called her father, who reported them to the Department of Corrections.

By 10:45 a.m. — nearly five hours after they had escaped — Corrections officials confirmed Brewer and Causey had disappeared.

The men were caught two days later at a Jasper County hotel after they ordered pizza and the delivery woman recognized them from media reports.

After reviewing the case, Giese’s office determined no Corrections officers were criminally responsible. However, Giese’s letter noted “there are several matters that should be investigated administratively by the SCDC.” Corrections officials did just that, Gelinas said, instituting a new policy that all inmates must be accounted for before a Dumpster leaves a prison. They also put fences and razor wire around trash compactors at high-security prisons.

Brewer’s record showed four minor prison violations, Gelinas said, all of them before his escape and all for not being in the right place. Prison rules keep maximum security inmates on “restricted movement,” meaning they must be in certain places at certain times.

Kirkland is a maximum security prison, and all inmates are closely supervised, Gelinas said, but Brewer was not on a suicide watch.

“He was considered one of our biggest risks,” he said.

Causey, who is still incarcerated at Kirkland, was convicted in 2004 for holding Columbia attorney Jack Swerling and his family at gunpoint in their home in 2002.

Brewer was serving a life sentence for the 1994 strangling of his sister-in-law, Kelly Burbage. He was convicted in 1999 but was spared the death penalty when a jury gave him a life sentence.

Brewer represented himself against 11th Circuit Donnie Myers, who has put more people on death row than any other solicitor in South Carolina.

“He did a pretty good job representing himself,” Myers said. “I thought he was a little too sane for him to do something like that (commit suicide). He thought a lot of himself.”

ANTONIO RICHBURG

UNNAMED MALE PRISONER

Posted on Sat, Jan. 07, 2006
By CHRISTINA KNAUSS
The State
Staff Writer

INMATE DEAD IN APPARENT SUICIDE

Autopsy on man found in Glenn Detention Center cell scheduled for today

A 33-year-old inmate at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Richland County was found dead Friday morning in what officials are calling a suicide.

Richland County Coroner Gary Watts said the man’s death appeared to be “suicide by hanging.” The man was found in his cell about 11:45 a.m. Friday, but the media was not notified by county officials until after 6 p.m.

The man’s name had not been released Friday night, pending notification of family members, Watts said.

Watts said an autopsy will be performed on the man this morning. He said the inmate apparently had been booked into the jail on drug charges but had not been on any kind of suicide or medical watch.

Watts and officials from the Richland County Sheriff’s Department were at the jail Friday to conduct an investigation into the man’s death.

Neither Watts nor Richland County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Chris Cowan could provide further details about what the inmate had been charged with or the manner of his death.

Richland County runs the detention center.

The inmate would be the second to have committed suicide at the jail in a year.

On May 20, 2005, Richland County jail inmate Antonio Richburg, 29, of Columbia was found hanging in his cell.

In a letter to his wife the day before, Richburg had complained he had not received his medications for seven days. Richburg suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

A jury during a Richland County coroner’s inquest held July found that jail workers contributed to Richburg’s death.

In August, Tiffany Richburg, his widow, filed suit against Prison Health Services, a Tennessee-based company that had been hired to provide mental health services for Richland County inmates.

In September, Richland County officials fired the company.

DAVID E. TIMMS

Posted on Fri, Aug. 05, 2005
Contributing: Staff writers Lauren Leach, Chuck Crumbo, Linda Lamb
The State
RICHLAND COUNTY

CORONER SAYS INMATE DEATH WAS A SUICIDE

A prison inmate who recently had been taken off suicide watch was found hanging in his cell Thursday morning, officials said.

David E. Timms, 44, of Iva, tore off a part of his pants leg and used that to hang himself at Broad River Correctional Institution, Richland County Coroner Gary Watts said. He was pronounced dead at 6 a.m. at Palmetto Health Richland hospital. Preliminary autopsy results showed the cause of death was asphyxiation due to hanging, he said.

Timms had undergone mental health counseling. On July 28, counselors recommended his removal from crisis intervention or suicide watch, a state Department of Corrections official said.

Timms began serving a 10-month sentence on June 23 after being convicted of discharging a firearm while intoxicated. He was scheduled for an early release on Dec. 1, the DOC official said.

Citing the investigation, the DOC official declined to release the last time officers checked on Timms in his cell.

DARRELL MATHIS
HERBERT BUTLER

Posted on Sat, Feb. 05, 2005
By J.R. GONZALES
Staff Writer

3 INMATE DEATHS RULED SUICIDE

All the men who killed themselves recently were serving life terms

Three S.C. prison inmates serving life sentences have committed suicide within the last three weeks.

There were four prison suicides in all 2004. There have been 21 inmate suicides since 1996.

The most recent occurred Tuesday when Darrell Mathis, 34, was found hanging in his cell at McCormick Correctional Institution, according to the Department of Corrections.

Mathis was serving a life sentence for an armed robbery conviction in Spartanburg County. He died of asphyxiation by hanging, said McCormick County Coroner Faye Puckett.

Two inmates from Columbia-area prisons committed suicide last month, authorities said.

Charles McCray, 45, bled to death Sunday after using a needle to open a shunt on his leg, said Richland County Coroner Gary Watts. The dialysis patient was in the Broad River Correctional Institution serving a life sentence for first-degree burglary and murder convictions in Florence County, according to the Department of Corrections.

Herbert Butler, 31, was found hanging in his cell Jan. 19 at the Kirkland Reception and Evaluation Center, according to the department. Butler had just received a life sentence for a murder conviction in Charleston County. He had been in the custody of the prison system just over a week when he died.

Both deaths are considered suicides, Watts said.

Joe Weedon, director of governmental affairs for the American Correctional Association said prisons across the country do a good job identifying those at risk for suicide.

“That’s not to say it doesn’t happen or it can’t happen,” he said. He described the recent suicides in South Carolina as “very rare.”

Department of Corrections director Jon Ozmint declined to discuss the recent suicides, but cited external factors that could lead to similar incidents.

Tougher sentences, state mental health cutbacks, and a swelling prison population are some reasons for suicides in prison, Ozmint said.

The hopelessness created through tough prison sentences leads to more suicides, he said. Fewer resources spent on helping the mentally ill means more are ending up in the prison system. And as the number of inmates goes up, so does the chance of them being mentally ill, he said.The factors Ozmint cited sometimes leave the department diagnosing mentally ill inmates who may not have had a prior diagnosis.

“We are the biggest provider of in-patient care to the acutely mentally ill in the state,” he said.

(It is not known whether the three inmates who recently committed suicide were diagnosed with a mental illness.)

Specific facilities are in place to hold mentally ill inmates. The department spends millions of dollars in prescription drugs to treat such inmates, Ozmint said.

If there are problems with how the department screens for mentally ill inmates, then the department would address that, he said.

“We haven’t seen that. We haven’t had a case where we let one slip through the cracks.”

Department employees stop hundreds of suicides every year, Ozmint added. “Unless you can prevent it on the street, you’re not going to prevent it in prison.”

CHARLES McCRAY

Posted on Tue, Feb. 01, 2005
Lauren Leach

INMATE SERVING LIFE COMMITS SUICIDE

A prison inmate who had a role in the 1987 murder of a prominent tobacco farmer committed suicide by puncturing his kidney dialysis shunt with a needle, Richland County Coroner Gary Watts said.

Charles McCray, 45, who was confined to Broad River Correctional Institution, bled to death Sunday, according to autopsy results .

McCray was convicted in 1991 of first-degree burglary and conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Billy Graham. McCray was already serving a life sentence for another murder. He was sentenced to life for the burglary and five years to be served concurrently for conspiracy.

State Department of Corrections director Jon Ozmint said McCray had been in lockup for the past several years for stabbing another inmate to death.

DANA LEE COWART

Posted on Tue, Jun. 08, 2004
Lauren Leach
Associated Press

GREENVILLE WOMAN FOUND HANGED IN JAIL CELL

GREENVILLE, S.C. -A Greenville woman was found hanged with a telephone cord hours after being booked into the county detention center on a charge of failing to pay child support, authorities said.

The State Law Enforcement Division is investigating the death of Dana Lee Cowart, 29, who was found alone in her cell, hanging from the cord, about 4:20 p.m.

Chris Bryan, Greenville County deputy coroner, said her death has been ruled a suicide.

Bryan said Cowart told jail officials when she was booked shortly before 1 p.m. Sunday that she had been treated in the past for depression. She was put in a holding cell with a phone and a bed to wait until a doctor could examine her.

Greenville County Public Safety Director Jim Dorriety said a guard checked her about 4:10 p.m. and saw her talking on the phone affixed to a wall in her cell. A second guard checked her less than seven minutes later and found her with the cord wrapped around her neck, he said.

Bryan said Cowart died of hypoxic brain injury due to hanging.

She was pronounced dead at 5 a.m. Monday at Greenville Memorial Hospital, Bryan said.

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