Accused killer asks for vaccine priority

Defense attorney claims inmate should be ‘first in line’ as other struggle to get COVID-19 shot

While South Florida seniors still face difficulties getting the COVID-19 vaccine, a man accused of murdering two people tried to move up in line.

George McCray, an inmate at the Palm Beach County Jail, says he’s a 67-year-old Marine Corps veteran with diabetes and high blood pressure, and he wants to get both doses of the vaccine at the West Palm Beach Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Officials there are ready to accommodate their former patient.

“You’ve seen in the news that people are lined up trying to get appointments at Publix and everywhere else trying to get vaccinated, especially people who are Mr. McCray’s age and have Mr. McCray’s health issues — they’re first in line,” said defense attorney Scott Pribble. He said McCray recently was in a jail quarantine for 22 days because he was exposed to two infected inmates.

But a judge sided with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and denied McCray, who is being held on no bond on two first-degree murder charges from a 2016 shooting in Lake Worth. No inmates have been vaccinated, and it appears this is the first time such a demand has come up.

A lawyer for the agency says it is responsible for the health care of everyone in its jails and has taken measures for the coronavirus pandemic such as providing two masks per inmate and quarantining those with infections.

“Once the vaccines roll out to the jail, then all of the inmates will be vaccinated in an expedient fashion,” said Marisa Gonzalez, representing Sheriff Ric Bradshaw.

She told Circuit Judge Kirk

Volker that it would not be right for McCray to get inoculated before everyone else.

“Allowing Mr. McCray to be transported by armed guard to the VA for a vaccine that everybody is trying to get at this point concerns me for the idea that all of these ( jail) policies, procedures, protocol have to apply uniformly,” Gonzalez argued. “There are other veterans at the jail. There are other elderly people at the jail.”

Captain Darlyn Morris, who oversees “inmate management,” testified during a hearing held over Zoom that McCray would be considered a “high-risk transport” because of the crimes he’s charged with. It would require a “SWATlike team” to take McCray anywhere.

Morris expressed concerns that VA rules forbid any weapons on the premises, which could expose risks for the deputies guarding McCray.

But Assistant Public Defender Pribble said the Sheriff ’s Office takes inmates for medical appointments outside the jail all the time, without incident.

“The sheriff has the capacity to take a prisoner, even a prisoner charged with first-degree murder, to take that person in custody to a facility to receive medical treatment, and then safely and securely bring them back to the jail,” Pribble said. “They’re just stopping Mr. McCray from getting a potentially life-saving vaccine.”

The defense says it made arrangements with the VA to administer the shots to McCray, and it’s even possible that he could remain in a patrol car the entire time he’s there.

But Judge Volker said he had too many concerns, starting with McCray being a flight risk given the serious charges he’s facing. Records show McCray also has a pending robbery count and eight previous felony convictions.

“He clearly presents an escape risk despite his age,” Volker said, suggesting that the Sheriff ’s Office explore the possibility of alternatives to taking McCray to and from vaccine appointments.

While Volker denied the defense plan to get McCray vaccinated at the VA, he asked whether it would be possible for either the VA to deliver the vaccine to McCray or for the Sheriff ’s Office to pick up the vaccine at the VA and bring it to McCray.

“It may not be feasible,” the judge said.

Gonzalez agreed to explore the ideas but doubted it could happen.

While the jail waits for vaccine, Florida’s prison system has not revealed plans for COVID-19 vaccine distribution to state prisons or local jails — for either corrections staff or those incarcerated, according to reports by the Orlando Sentinel.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with public health experts, have recommended at-risk inmate populations have priority for the vaccine.

McCray’s lawyer says he’s “at a worrying risk of infection and possibly death.” If the court continues to deny his client, the defense will consider an appeal.

“Everyone’s supposed to get vaccinated,” Pribble said. “That’s the medical consensus.”