A federal grand jury has indicted two former Augusta State Medical Prison correctional officers in the 2020 death of an inmate.
Robert Roberson and Marcus Phillips were indicted Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District for violating the constitutional rights of an inmate, a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
The defendants did this “by showing deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of harm to an inmate, resulting in his death.”
The indictment adafurther charges Roberson with falsifying a logbook to cover up his misconduct.
On Oct. 28, 2020, Roberson and Phillips became aware of a smoldering fire in an inmate’s cell. Rather than extinguish the smoldering fire, evacuate the inmate from his cell, remediate the smoke from the cell or call a fire emergency over the radio, they willfully disregarded the substantial risk of serious harm to the inmate by leaving him in his locked cell for several hours while he slowly died from smoke inhalation, the statement said.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Tara M. Lyons for the Southern District of Georgia and Special Agent in Charge Paul Brown of the FBI Augusta Field Office made the announcement. The FBI Augusta Resident Agency is investigating the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Kirkland for the Southern District of Georgia and Special Litigation Counsel Christopher J. Perras and Trial Attorney Briana M. Clark of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division are prosecuting the case.
