Man jailed in frigid cell died of hypothermia, feds say. More AL guards charged
The death of Anthony “Tony” Mitchell, who died of hypothermia and neglect after two weeks inside what federal prosecutors describe as a “concrete box” in an Alabama jail’s booking area, has led to criminal charges against more corrections officers.
A federal indictment filed July 24 in the Northern District of Alabama against six Walker County Jail guards accuses them of illegally punishing detainees, including Mitchell, who was 33, and five other inmates, for “perceived misbehavior.”
The punishment includes depriving Mitchell of food, water, clothes, sanitary living conditions, medical and mental health care, according to the filing, as well as physical abuse against other inmates.
The day he died, on Jan. 26, 2023, Mitchell was emaciated, the indictment says. His internal body temperature was 72 degrees.
His death was ruled a homicide, McClatchy News previously reported. In addition to hypothermia, he also died of “sepsis resulting from infected injuries obtained during incarceration and medical neglect.”
Five of six jail employees named in the indictment are directly charged in his death. They include:
- Jail Capt. Arcelia Otero Tidwell
- Officer Dayton Lane Wakefield
- Officer Daniel Eugene Vickery
- Jacob Dlee Edwards
- Robert Morgan Madison
A sixth officer, Richard Douglas Holtzman, is charged with physically beating inmates, along with Vickery and Wakefield.
Holtzman, Tidwell and Vickery are also accused of bribing and offering one inmate with “free-world” food in exchange for “acting as an ‘enforcer’” and beating a fellow inmate.
The Walker County Sheriff’s Office and attorneys separately representing Tidwell, Madison and Vickery did not return McClatchy News’ request for comment July 30. Information on the other officers’ legal representation was not immediately available.
Before any federal criminal charges were brought over Mitchell’s death, his mother filed a federal lawsuit in February 2023 over the “hellish conditions” he endured, McClatchy News reported.
Mitchell was booked in jail on Jan. 12, 2023, after his arrest during a mental health welfare check at his home, the July 24 indictment says. He was accused of firing a gun at Walker County sheriff’s deputies on his property.
He was put in “BK5,” one of eight booking cells that were “routinely colder than other parts of the Jail,” according to the indictment.
The cell was mostly used to house detainees “for only a short period of time,” according to the indictment, which says it was nicknamed the “drunk tank” by staff.
BK5 had “no sink, no toilet, no bunk, nor a raised platform on which to sleep,” prosecutors wrote in the filing.
‘We killed him’
A year ago, Joshua Conner Jones was the first Walker County Jail officer charged in Mitchell’s death, McClatchy News reported. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy against rights in relation to Mitchell and to a civil rights offense in connection with the beating of a different detainee.
“Collectively we did it. We killed him,” Jones said of Mitchell, according to his plea agreement.
Jones’ attorney W. Scott Brower previously told McClatchy News on Aug. 2 that by taking a plea deal, he accepted responsibility.
At the time, Brower said Jones’ criminal case was the “tip of the iceberg.”
He predicted “other individuals” would be charged in “the death of Mr. Mitchell as a result of the actions or inaction of employees of the Walker County Sheriff’s Office.”
Brower was correct.
Other officers charged
On Aug. 13, a second officer, Karen Kim Elsie Kelly, agreed to plead guilty to deprivation of rights under color of law in connection with Mitchell’s death, McClatchy News reported.
Her defense attorney, Brett M. Bloomston, told McClatchy News on Oct. 9 that she accepted “full responsibility.”
“The culture of the Walker County Jail was such that she could do little to help this inmate without fear of reprisal,” he added.
In October, two more corrections officers, Heather Lasha Craig and Bailey Clark Ganey, were criminally charged. They pleaded guilty to civil rights offenses.
Craig, according to prosecutors, was concerned for Mitchell while he was left to deteriorate, naked, in his filthy cell. She suspected jail nurses were avoiding caring for him, court filings say.
But because she feared being branded as a “snitch” and retaliation from her supervisors, she kept her concerns to herself, prosecutors wrote in court documents.
When contacted for comment in October, Craig’s defense attorney declined.
Ganey, according to prosecutors, also felt Mitchell needed help.
Despite this, prosecutors said he and other officers showed “hostility” and “indifference to (Mitchell’s) well-being.”
Ganey’s defense attorney, Erica Williamson Barnes, previously told McClatchy News that Ganey was young and an inexperienced law enforcement officer when Mitchell was incarcerated and said he “regrets the conditions in which Tony Mitchell was held.”
The cases against Jones, Kelly, Ganey and Craig are pending, court records show. Their sentencing dates were not listed as of July 30.
In the federal lawsuit brought by Mitchell’s mother, 16 of 21 defendants initially named were dismissed from the suit, according to WBRC, which reports a confidential settlement has been reached.
The defendants, including some now facing criminal charges, were dismissed with prejudice on July 16, court records show. The lawsuit remains pending against others.
Legal counsel for Mitchell’s mother did not return McClatchy News’ request for comment.
One of the attorneys, Jon C. Goldfarb, who is leading the civil case, told McClatchy News in August that his family “hopes all those involved in the collective slow, brutal death of Tony Mitchell will be held accountable and no one else has to suffer as he did.”
Goldfarb said they also hope “that now everyone knows that Tony Mitchell’s life was important.”
This story was originally published July 30, 2025 at 3:15 PM with the headline "Man jailed in frigid cell died of hypothermia, feds say. More AL guards charged."
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