Sacramento County agrees to settle lawsuit over death of inmate beaten into coma in jail

Antonio Thomas lingered in a coma for 42 days after being beaten inside the Sacramento County Main Jail in December 2019, succumbing to his injuries only after his parents gave permission for doctors at UC Davis Medical Center to remove him from the artificial respirators that had been keeping him alive.

Thomas, a 39-year-old father of two who had suffered from mental illness much of his life, had been in the jail for three days on a charge of failing to check in with his probation officer.

He allegedly was beaten by his cellmate, a convicted carjacker and child molester who was in jail on a murder charge in connection with the violent beating death of a south Sacramento man in April 2019.

At the time of Thomas’ death, he was the 10th inmate to die in Sacramento County’s jails in the previous 12 months, and his death sparked a civil rights lawsuit filed on behalf of his family.

Family attorney blasts sheriff’s management of jail

This week, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors agreed to settle the lawsuit for a payment of $1.5 million, according to Sacramento civil rights attorney Mark Merin, who filed the suit and issued a blistering condemnation Thursday of the jail management under outgoing Sheriff Scott Jones.

“It should not have taken three years for the county to recognize its responsibility and finally to compensate the family for their loss,” Merin said. “Antonio was a vulnerable, mentally ill man who was misclassified and placed in a cell with a (cellmate) who went on to kill him.

“Not only did the jail fail to properly classify Antonio, but they ignored the warnings of trustees that the (cell placement) placed Antonio at risk and that the cellmates were incompatible. And, further, the jailers failed to come to his assistance as he was being bludgeoned to death by his cellmate despite three emergency notifications during an 11-minute period.

“The jail is a deadly place where inmates are permitted not only to assault and kill each other but to commit suicide undetected and undeterred by staff. Until the sheriff takes hold of the operation and management of that jail, it will continue to rank among the most deadly jails in the state of California. I can only hope that the incidence of violence will decrease in the future, although there’s no indication that any effective measure have yet to be taken.”

Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Rodney Grassmann defended the handling of the Thomas case, writing in an email that the “Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office reviewed the actions of Sheriff’s Office personnel and the investigation of Mr. Thomas’ death and found no criminal misconduct. After the DA’s review, Sheriff’s Office Internal Affairs Investigators reviewed Sheriff’s Office Personnel’s actions and found no policy violations.”

“The Sheriff’s Office works hard every day to ensure the safety and security of our inmate population,” Grassmann added. “Unfortunately, the combination of an overwhelming number of inmates with mental health issues, combined with an increasingly violent criminal population, often creates an unstable and unpredictable dynamic.

“Nonetheless, with every incident of this nature, we examine our actions and policies to determine if we fell short and what can we learn going forward.”

Cellmate has violent criminal history

Sheriff’s officials have previously said they were investigating Thomas’ cellmate in connection with the beating, which left Thomas brain dead and which his mother was not informed of until her son had already been in the hospital for 24 hours.

Thomas’ cellmate, Joshua Vaden, is still in custody, awaiting trial on a charge that he murdered Michael Damien Gregory Sr., court records show. Vaden has previous convictions in 2007 for carjacking and in 2014 for lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14.

He was arrested in Tijuana, Mexico, in May 2019 and returned to Sacramento to face trial in the Gregory slaying, a case that is now set for trial Aug. 15.

Vaden was never charged in connection with Thomas’ death.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Rod Norgaard said the D.A.’s office declined to file charges after determining “we did not have a substantial likelihood of conviction beyond a reasonable doubt standard.”

“At that time, we declined to file the case unless further evidence is developed,” he said.

Thomas’ family has said he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and that when he was jailed for previous offenses he typically was housed in a medical unit.

His criminal history dated to 1999, with a series of misdemeanor cases that included loitering and defrauding an innkeeper.

In 2001, he was sentenced to four years in state prison for assault with a deadly weapon, but was found incompetent by a court-appointed doctor and spent four months in a state hospital.

Court papers say Thomas had a history in the Sacramento jail of “behavior-related issues,” including reports from other inmates in that he was “urinating in food trays,” had psychiatric problems and could not get along with others.

In July 2019, he was classified as a “protective custody inmate” after two cellmates had to be moved “due to his psychological behavior,” court records say.

Despite that, following his December 2019 arrest he was found to be eligible to be housed in the general population in a medium classification and was sent to the jail’s fifth-floor east wing, court records say.

“The 5 East floor contained approximately 90 two-man cells comprised mostly of general population inmates who were not specially classified by jail staff,” court records say. “The majority of inmates housed on the 5 East floor were subject to murder charges.”

Deputy warned of ‘man down’ inside cell

Once assigned to Vaden’s cell, the two men “immediately had a dispute over who would take which bunk inside of the cell,” court papers say, adding that Vaden filed a grievance saying he did not want Thomas as a cellmate and wanted to be housed alone, court records say.

Jail staff never replied to that grievance, court records say, and on Dec. 9, 2019, Thomas left cell 315 for pill call and snacks. Afterward, Vaden refused to allow Thomas to re-enter the cell, and when he finally did Vaden “brutally assaulted” his cellmate, court papers say.

Thomas pressed the emergency button, and a deputy called the cell on the intercom but received no response and did not investigate, court records say.

Other inmates heard the disturbance, with one banging on the cell door to try to stop the attack while telling a deputy there was a “man down” inside the cell, court papers say.

A deputy found Thomas unconscious on the floor, saw Vaden had blood on his knuckles and noted the interior of the cell was in “disarray” with vomit and blood on the ground.

Thomas was taken to UC Davis Medical Center, where he remained comatose until his death.

A review three days after the attack that was conducted by sheriff’s Capt. Thomas Lynn determined that “both Thomas and Vaden were properly classified and housed at the time the incident occurred,” court records say.

Jail records show that Vaden, 34, is now housed in a cell on the jail’s eighth floor, where in addition to the murder charge he is being held without bail for absconding parole supervision and removal of a GPS tracking device.

This story was originally published July 29, 2022 at 5:00 AM.