Teen stomped to death in Mississippi jail, coroner says

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An 18-year-old killed in the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond last week was stomped to death, the coroner said Thursday.

“It appeared he had shoe prints all over his head,” Hinds County Coroner Jeremiah Howard told Mississippi Today.

The teen, Mielun Butler, was booked in jail on July 1 after he was arrested in connection to a killing at a south Jackson apartment complex. By the morning of July 3, a video circulating on social media showed an unidentified person kicking his limp and bloodied body while he lay on the floor.

At a Monday press conference, Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones confirmed the authenticity of the video. He told Mississippi Today on Thursday that he placed a detention officer on administrative leave with pay this week. Jones said he would not share the officer’s name because the incident remains under investigation.

In October, Jones ceded operational control of the jail to Wendell France, a court-appointed federal receiver. The federal judge overseeing the court case, Carlton Reeves, will hold a hearing on Friday to discuss conditions at the jail.

Jones said he believed the incident could be gang-related but did not offer details.

“I think it’s no secret that some of the violence that we have been witnessing in our community has eventually spilled over into the jail,” he said. “We believe there may be a strong connection.”

Jones could not say how many assaults have occurred at the jail.

Butler’s death occurred the same day that a Hinds County Chancery Court judge ordered the sheriff’s office to turn over jail death records that it had withheld from the Southern Poverty Law Center, which requested those records more than a year ago under the state’s public records law.

Butler was charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Melvin Edwards on June 13 in the 32-year-old’s home at the Pine Ridge Garden Apartments, which are known for deadly violence. He was the second man arrested and charged in connection to Edwards’ death.

At Butler’s initial appearance on July 2, Municipal Court Judge Jeffery Reynolds set a $1 million bond, an amount the judge acknowledged the teenager could not post.

By July 3, Butler was dead. In a video posted on Facebook, a person wearing black sandals stomps on Butler’s body as someone orders Butler to say, ‘Long live Melvin.’”

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This story was originally published by Mississippi Today and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.