FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - The mother of an inmate who was killed in his cell is demanding an investigation into the guards’ actions during the attack. The victim’s cellmate confessed to the beating.
On Tuesday, the mother of the victim, 29-year-old Janard Geffrard, spoke out about her son’s death.
“We just want to know what happened,” Marcia Irving said. “How did they let him down like that.”
Irving wants to know what happened to her son after he was killed at the Broward County Jail on Dec. 16 by another inmate, identified as Kevin Barnes.
“Kevin beat Janard to the point where he fractured his sternum, he broke his rib, he bruised his lungs,” said Josiah Graham, the family’s attorney.
According to a confession by Barnes, he told deputies he attacked Geffrard because he was gay and because he didn’t clean himself.
“Could you imagine getting a phone call that your son was brutally attacked?” Irving said.
Irving said she wasn’t notified about the beating for two days.
“He was already dead when I got there because it was too much time lapsed for them to give him help,” she said.
Geffrard was in jail for six months due to a burglary charge. He was waiting to be transferred out of the jail after being declared incompetent to stand trial.
Surveillance video showed the brutal beating that happened inside the cell, which took Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies over 20 minutes to respond. An hour after the beating, Geffrard was then transported to the hospital.
According to Broward County Public Defender Gordon Weekes, mental health patients are not receiving the help that they need in jail, and wrote a letter to the sheriff to address the issue.
“We have a pattern of a number of individuals that are either being neglected, being overlooked,” Weekes said. “There seems to be some culture of indifference that has emerged within our jails.”
Weekes said he hasn’t received a response by the sheriff.
Last year, Sheriff Gregory Tony also wrote a letter that raised concerns about inmates at the County Jail who faced mental health issues.
BSO released the following statement, which reads as follows, “BSO’s Internal Affairs Unit has an open and active administrative investigation into the incident, and two BSO employees, a detention deputy and a detention technician, are currently on administrative investigative leave with pay.”
Barnes is expected to be charged with murder.
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