‘Failure of the system’

Case of deaf man killed in Baltimore’s jail mired in delays

BALTIMORE — In a Baltimore courtroom one July afternoon, attorneys scrambled to make sense of the overlapping cases that brought Javarick Gantt to court.

Gantt, a deaf man who relied on sign language, had missed earlier hearings and failed to check in with his probation officer. His file listed an Indiana mailing address. His cases stalled amid pandemic restrictions and court closures.

Gantt explained his struggles navigating the bureaucracy of the Baltimore court system.

“I didn’t know anything. I was new to this,” he said through a courtroom interpreter. “This was my first time on probation. They didn’t tell me what to expect, what to do.”

His charges stemmed from a domestic dispute in which no one was seriously injured. But largely because he missed court dates and check-ins, he was ordered held without bail and remained behind bars.

Meanwhile, his trial was scheduled several months out and a probation violation hearing got pushed back twice, in part because of scheduling issues involving the necessary interpreters, court records show.

He wouldn’t live long enough to see his cases resolved.

Gantt was found unresponsive in the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center on Oct. 9, less than a month before his 35th birthday — and his death was ruled a homicide by strangulation.

“This was a failure of the system,” said Debra Gardner, legal director of the Public Justice Center, a legal advocacy group. “The system is fraught with delays and that certainly had devastating consequences here.

“Plus, there is a constitutional duty to protect people if you’re going to deny their freedom.”

Last Friday, corrections officials announced charges against Gantt’s cellmate, Gordon Staron, 33, who was jailed in September on first-degree murder and other charges after his arrest in a deadly stabbing. He now faces another first-degree murder charge in Gantt’s death.

“This indicates a profoundly egregious mistake by the jail,” said Corene Kendrick, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit filed in the 1990s over treatment of people with disabilities in Central Booking.

The case exemplifies a confluence of problems plaguing the justice system in

Baltimore, including an overreliance on pretrial detention, experts and advocates said. They said judges often leave defendants jailed for months — even on minor charges — while their cases crawl through the courts.

The practice has become more common since 2017, when bail reform measures sought to limit the use of cash bail because of its disparate impact on poor defendants. An unintended consequence of the effort: more people being held instead with no bail set, often for weeks or months before their cases are adjudicated, local research shows.

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Loved ones said they worried about Gantt for several reasons, including his small stature. Just over 5 feet tall and about 105 pounds, he was often the target of bullies.

Sign language was Gantt’s primary language; his reading and writing skills were limited. He moved to Baltimore several years ago from Florida, leaving behind a robust support system.

In Baltimore, Gantt sometimes struggled to navigate public transportation and traverse a largely unfamiliar city, loved ones said.

He was arrested in early 2019 when police responded to a domestic dispute involving his ex-girlfriend. He spent less than a week in jail and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault. A judge placed him on probation.

So began his three-year entanglement with a system he struggled to comprehend.

In September 2019, Gantt was arrested again after a similar incident involving his former roommate. Police said Gantt entered a home without permission, groped her without consent and pushed her.

But the woman told The Baltimore Sun she believes that while Gantt was intoxicated and belligerent, he was not a serious threat.

After that arrest, Gantt spent about nine months incarcerated.

Then, amid a push to reduce jail and prison populations during the beginning of the pandemic, his public defender requested an emergency release, noting weak evidence and the fact that Gantt “effectively remains in isolation” behind bars because of his hearing disability.

The motion was granted and Gantt was released on $50,000 unsecured bond in June 2020.

He never reported to his probation agent, according to court filings. In October 2020, he missed a probation violation hearing and was issued a bench warrant. He missed other court dates. Then in summer 2021, he was issued another bench warrant.

Nearly a year later, on July 1, Gantt was arrested on the two warrants.