‘I can’t breathe,’ NC inmate begged deputies who restrained him. Then he stopped moving.

“Please, I can’t breathe,” John Neville said to deputies.

It was one of a series of phrases he would utter before he died from the way authorities restrained him at the Forsyth County jail.

The details about what led to the December death of the 56-year-old Greensboro man are described in an autopsy report from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston Salem.

“Help me.”

“Let me go.”

“Mama.”

He would beg for help for more than 3 minutes before uttering his last incoherent phrase.

After 4 minutes he stopped moving.

It took 12 minutes before deputies realized he lost his pulse and wasn’t breathing and 19 minutes before they started CPR.

The N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner released the report Thursday, a day after Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill filed charges of felony involuntary manslaughter against five detention officers and a nurse from the company Wellpath, which provides medical care at the facility.

Medical examiners ruled Neville’s death to be a brain injury caused by cardiac arrest which in turn was caused by compressional and positional asphyxiation during prone restraint. In layman’s terms, being placed in a type of restraint with his legs raised toward his back caused Neville to stop breathing, leading to a heart attack and then a brain injury from lack of oxygen to the brain.

The autopsy report says at one point while Neville was lying on his stomach a nurse and jail staff left his cell. The nurse told staff she could not see him breathing or moving, so staff re-entered the cell.

Response to medical emergency

O’Neill’s announcement was the first time the public would hear from authorities about Neville’s death, seven months after it happened.

Neville was arrested by Kernersville Police at 3:25 a.m. on Dec. 1, 2019, for a charge of misdemeanor assault on a female out of Guilford County.

Since Kernersville straddles the county line his arrest was in Forsyth County and he was taken to that county’s jail.

In his cell he told his roommate he had been partying and that included drinking and marijuana, according to the autopsy.

He had a history of asthma and a non-organic sleep disorder, but no history of seizures.

So exactly 24 hours and 1 minute later, when his cellmate heard Neville’s body thump onto the concrete floor after he fell from the top bunk, it wasn’t clear why Neville had begun thrashing on the floor as if having a seizure.

The autopsy report says the cellmate hit a panic button in the cell.

Forsyth County Detention Center employees came running and took the cellmate to another location while they worked on Neville.

Video evidence

The News & Observer petitioned the court in June for video of the incident as authorities refused to speak about the case. A hearing has been scheduled for July 15.

The prosecutor, the family’s attorney and the attorney for one of the officers have all said they currently plan to ask the judge that the video stay out of the public.

Chris Clifton, an attorney for the Neville family, said Neville’s children are learning about the details of the case in real time with the rest of the public and have seen the video.

“It is getting harder by the day as I’m getting to know these kids better,” Clifton said. “It makes the emotional impact of seeing it that much more intense.”

The children saw the video July 2, less than a week before the charges were issued, and didn’t know it would become a criminal case until late Tuesday.

“They’ve had one week to process the video,” Clifton said. “I will say as horrifying as that description is, it does no justice to the overwhelmingly emotional impact of seeing the video.”

Handcuffed, crying out

The “horrifying description” Clifton was talking about was the very detailed account from the autopsy:

Neville was vomiting, sweating and had blood around his mouth. Staff rolled up bedding and placed it under his head. He didn’t respond to any verbal commands but groaned.

As the nurse tried to get Neville to respond, he finally regained consciousness but was incoherent, confused and uncooperative.

The report says he tried to sit up, kick and swing his arms.

Staff told him he wasn’t in trouble but was having a medical emergency. They told him to be calm and stop resisting.

A group known as a Special Response Team restrained Neville on his back with his arms and legs held down. No one applied pressure to his chest or neck.

He yelled but was incoherent. He came in and out of consciousness again.

The report said this time he tried to kick, jerk his arms away, and thrash.

He told the SRT team to let him go and to help him up, and he cried out for his mom.

The report says he tried to bite members of the SRT team so they put a “spit mask” over his head.

They rolled Neville onto his stomach and handcuffed his wrists.

He said he couldn’t breathe.

They helped him on his feet and took him to a restraint chair.

He was secured to the chair, his hands were handcuffed behind his back and metal restraints were placed on his ankles.

They transported him to another room, and noticed he had soiled himself. He was confused on the way and asked for help before he started twisting his torso and moving it forward.

In a observation cell, they removed his chair restraints, and with assistance Neville followed instructions to walk into the cell and kneel down. He was placed face down on his stomach onto a mattress that had been placed on the floor.

Put into prone restraint

He continued to writhe. Deputies again handcuffed him behind his back and his legs were placed into metal restraints.

Deputies restrained him by his shoulders, and legs. They never put pressure on his neck, the report says.

They took his ankle restraints off and raised his legs toward his back, placing him into the prone restraint position. This type of restraint is controversial among law enforcement agencies because it has a history of leading to suffocation and death.

“Please, I can’t breathe,” Neville said. “Help me. Let me go.”

Deputies did try to remove his handcuffs but the key broke off in the left handcuff keyhole.

Another key was used but was unable to unlock the handcuff.

A bolt cutter malfunctioned.

It had been five minutes now, and he was still in prone restraint.

Twelve minutes into prone restraint, a bolt cutter finally sliced through the metal securing his left hand and they were able to get him out of the position.

Staff removed his blue jumpsuit.

The nurse checked him and then left with jail staff. They closed the door with him lying on his stomach.

The autopsy report says the nurse told staff she could not see him breathing or moving so staff re-entered the cell, rolled him onto his back and secured his legs and arms again.

There was no pulse.

They began chest compressions.

Now, 19 minutes after being being placed in prone restraint, they began CPR.

They placed a defibrillator on his chest but got a reading of “no shock advised.”

Paramedics were brought in but couldn’t save Neville’s life.

Deputies fired, lawyer says

O’Neill charged Detention Officers Sarah E. Poole, Antonio M. Woodley and Christopher Stamper, Corp. Edward J. Roussel and Sgt. Lavette M. Williams, and nurse Michelle Heughins.

Roussel is being represented by Winston-Salem attorney David Freedman. The N&O wasn’t able to find out if the other five defendants have attorneys.

“He said he feels like he’s in the middle of a bad dream,” Freedman said of Roussel.

He said the five deputies were terminated from their positions Tuesday night. Wednesday they walked to the magistrates office to turn themselves in on their charges.

Freedman said deputies faced no disciplinary action by the sheriff’s office until six months later at the end of June when Roussel was placed on administrative leave. According to Freedman, Rousel was the only one.

That was after the N&O began asking if any of the officers were disciplined.

“There are not personnel actions related to this incident,” Christina Howell, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, said in an email on June 16.

The N&O has been working to verify that information through a public records request sent June 17. On June 22, an answer was promised by the end of the week. The date for a response was delayed repeatedly and the request remains unfulfilled.

Officers, nurse defended

Freedman gave some insight into Roussel’s possible defense.

He said that the theory behind the charges is “gross negligence” but his client, who has a career spanning 30 years, is devastated and did not intend for Neville to die.

“The officers were following instructions of the nurse and I can say Mr. Roussel would not have left Mr. Neville had he known he required further medical care at that point,” Freedman said.

Wellpath, the medical provider for the Forsyth County jail who recently settled a lawsuit on a wrongful death case for another inmate at the jail, defended its employee.

“We are all saddened by the death of Mr. Neville,” said Judy Lilley, a spokesperson for the company. “We are confident that a review of the circumstances surrounding Mr. Neville’s death will reveal that Ms. Heughins fulfilled her obligations as a registered nurse by acting professionally and reasonably in her efforts to save his life.

“Nurse Heughins performed her duties, did not engage in misconduct, and provided the level and type of care required under the circumstances.”

Neville’s death

Neville’s care wasn’t over once paramedics arrived at the jail.

Paramedics moved him to the area just outside the cell.

CPR continued until they got a pulse at 4:35 a.m., more than an hour after the incident began. He was still being restrained.

He was transported to the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center at 5:02 a.m. where he lost his pulse again.

It took 6 minutes to get a pulse back.

They lost him again. Another three minutes to get his heart back.

He was in a coma.

He continued to deteriorate over the next 48 hours. On Dec. 3, authorities got him released from custody.

Neville’s time of death was 9:22 a.m. on Dec. 4, 2019.

This story was originally published July 9, 2020 at 11:46 AM with the headline "‘I can’t breathe,’ NC inmate begged deputies who restrained him. Then he stopped moving.."