Baltimore jail staff failed to protect a deaf man killed by his cellmate, lawsuit says

Officers stand outside the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center, May 12, 2005, in downtown Baltimore. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark, file)

BALTIMORE — In the days before Javarick Gantt was strangled to death in jail, he was forced to share a cell with a first-degree murder suspect whose violent behaviour had already alarmed his previous cellmate, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Gantt, who used sign language because he was deaf, struggled to communicate with corrections officers and other detainees, making him especially vulnerable to violence, his family alleges. Their lawsuit sheds new light on the circumstances surrounding the 2022 jailhouse killing, which raised significant concerns about operations in the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center.

Gordon Staron, 36, was awaiting trial in an apparently random stabbing attack that prosecutors called an “axe murder.” Gantt, by comparison, was facing minor charges. Attorneys for Gantt’s family argue the two men never should have been assigned to the same cell, saying in court papers that his death was “entirely predictable and preventable.”

The family wants to know how the state-run detention facility let this happen, but they’ve been stonewalled from the beginning in their attempts to get information, said Gantt’s father, Rick Barry Sr.

“Nothing, zero, no answers,” Barry said in a phone interview.

A spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, which runs the jail, said the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

Staron ultimately pleaded guilty to strangling Gantt after a jury convicted him in the axe attack. He was sentenced last year to life without parole.

Gantt, 34, weighed little over 100 pounds (45 kilograms), records show. Most significantly, he wasn’t able to call for help because he communicated primarily by sign language, according to court papers.

The lawsuit argues he stood little chance against a cellmate experiencing serious mental health issues, displaying paranoid and volatile behaviour, and being treated for alcohol and substance abuse. Staron was initially arrested after he drove into Baltimore from the suburbs and attacked a homeless man at a bus stop, according to prosecutors.

Nonetheless, records show he and Gantt received similar security classifications, the scoring system jail administrators use to determine where detainees are housed.

About two weeks before Gantt’s death, Staron was involved in an altercation and punched two other men, according to police reports. Afterward, his frightened cellmate asked to be moved, leaving an empty bed that would soon be occupied by Gantt, the lawsuit says.

Gantt was transferred after reporting that his previous cellmate “had been bullying him and attempting to assault him,” according to the lawsuit. He communicated the message in sign language after flagging someone down from his cell window. A corrections officer then asked administrators to move Gantt “to a safer cell,” which landed him with Staron, according to jail records.

“With his disability, I feel he was overlooked,” Gantt’s father said.

That was nine days before Gantt was found unresponsive when he didn’t get up for breakfast. Other inmates reported hearing him “making noises and banging on his cell door” during the night, according to police, but several hours passed before corrections officers noticed something was wrong.

Gantt’s family says he should have received special accommodations and safety precautions. They also allege that corrections officers failed to properly monitor the dorm the night of his death. The lawsuit against the state corrections department and staff members seeks damages in excess of US$50 million.

Gantt, who left behind a young daughter, was jailed for months amid a backlogged court system. His charges stemmed from a 2019 domestic dispute in which no one was seriously injured. But largely because he missed court dates and probation check-ins, he was ordered held without bail and remained behind bars awaiting trial.

A judge decided to keep Gantt incarcerated even after he explained that he was struggling to navigate the bureaucracy of the courts.

“This was my first time on probation,” he said through a sign language interpreter during a bail hearing, according to the lawsuit. “They didn’t tell me what to expect, what to do.”

Despite his hearing impairment, Gantt was gregarious and open-hearted, with many friends in the deaf community and beyond, loved ones said. He formed close bonds wherever he went -- including in the Baltimore area, where he had moved somewhat recently after growing up in Florida. But his father said Gantt became helpless and confused when the legal system failed to properly accommodate his disability.

“The tragedy is that no one has told this family anything, at any time,” said Baltimore attorney Andrew Slutkin, who represents the family. “There’s been no communication of what happened, how it happened and what they’re doing to prevent it from happening again.”

Lea Skene, The Associated Press