A Clayton County inmate has been charged in a fellow inmate’s beating death, the second such incident in under two months, the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office said.
Abdul Woodard has been charged with felony murder, aggravated assault and simple battery after he “brutally beat” his cellmate, the sheriff’s office said. Woodard was in custody after being arrested Dec. 15 at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, accused of stealing baggage.
Woodard was sleeping out in the day room awaiting a cell location, then was moved into a cell with two other people, where he had to sleep on the floor. Officials later discovered one of the other inmates had been killed.
The victim has not been identified.
It’s the second incident in which an inmate has been accused in a fellow inmate’s death since November. Carlos Zegarra-Arroyo, 44, died Nov. 19 after what officials called a “racially motivated” attack due to the “color of his skin.” The suspect, Jacquez Jackson, allegedly stated several times that he didn’t like Mexican or Hispanic people and wanted to kill them, according to the sheriff’s office.
Jackson was in custody on charges of violating his probation stemming from an earlier assault case. He now faces additional charges of murder, malice murder, aggravated assault and starting a penal riot. He is accused of punching and kicking Zegarra-Arroyo and slamming his head against a toilet during the attack, the sheriff’s office said.
The jail has a capacity of 1,536 beds but currently house 1,900 inmates, resulting in some inmates being placed on the floor or being housed three to a cell; more than 300 inmates must sleep on the floor due to overcrowding, the sheriff’s office said.
“This causes issues among the inmates. When one inmate uses the toilet and the other inmates inmate’s head is down by the toilet, you will have fights, and when you are in a room where everything in the room is steel, metal, or concrete, it becomes a deadly cage match,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Sheriff Levon Allen has asked for more than $6.5 million in funding from the Clayton County Board of Commissioners to expand the jail’s capacity and to properly classify inmates.
The family of Terry Thurmond, who died at the jail in November 2022, filed a lawsuit last November against the county, its sheriff, former deputies and medical providers they allege are responsible for his death. Thurmond, 38, was tased and then pinned down by up to six jailers for more than 20 minutes, his family claims. He allegedly died while lying face down with his hands and legs pinned behind his back, having been refused immediate medical care, his family says.
A grand jury declined to indict the jailers involved.
In September, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to launch an investigation into allegations of life-threatening conditions at the Clayton County jail, citing media reports of “serious human rights violations and dangerous conditions inside the facility.”
Former Sheriff Victor Hill, who oversaw the jail, was convicted in October 2022 of violating the civil rights of six detainees by strapping them in restraint chairs as punishment. The devices can be only be used to protect detainees from harming themselves or others.
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