Former guard pleads guilty in inmate death.
A former corrections officer at the Milwaukee County Jail on trial for his role in the 2016 dehydration death of inmate Terrill Thomas has pleaded guilty to a lesser offense.
James Ramsey-Guy had been charged with abusing a resident of a penal facility, a felony. But after two days of testimony, Ramsey-Guy pleaded guilty to obstructing an officer, a misdemeanor. He likely faces probation at his sentencing Jan. 31.
Prosecutors said the amended charge fit the case because Ramsey-Guy lied during an inquest examining the circumstances of Thomas’ death.
Ramsey-Guy, 39, said he followed his lieutenant’s orders when he shut off the water to Thomas’ cell about 7:15 a.m.
But a prosecutor said that when Ramsey-Guy went home when his shift was over without logging that action, informing the next shift or noting it on a whiteboard, he essentially signed Thomas’ death warrant.
The water remained off until another guard found Thomas dead a week later. Testimony at trial last week revealed that Thomas, who suffered from mental illness, never told anyone his water was off, and when he did speak to jail staff it was often in an unintelligible jibberish.
Ramsey-Guy, along with former lieutenant Kashka Meadors, 41, and former sheriff’s Major Nancy Evans, were charged in February 2018. An inquest jury in 2017 had recommended charges against seven jail officials, but prosecutors said evidence supported pursuing only the three cases.
Meadors pleaded no contest in October and awaits sentencing Monday. Evans’ trial is scheduled for next month.
A criminal case also remains pending against the contractor that provides health services at the jail, Armor Correctional Health Services Inc.
Thomas was arrested in April 2016 after he ran into the Potawatomi casino, yelling and ordering patrons to “get out.”
He fired two rounds and stuffed poker chips into his pockets. Confronted by police, he dropped the Glock 9mm handgun into a trash can and was arrested. His family said they believe he was having a psychotic episode.
After he stuffed mattress material in his toilet and caused flooding, he was moved to a single cell in a segregation pod, where his water was shut off because of the prior incident.
Shutting off the water to the cells of inmates who have caused flooding is not unusual. Leaving it off so long was.