BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – The family of 29-year-old Janard Geffrard wants answers.
They want to know where detention deputies were while their loved one was getting beaten to death by his 35-year-old cellmate, Kevin Barnes.
“I thought he was safer in there than in the streets,” said Marcia Irving, Geffrard’s mother.
According to an arrest form, on Dec. 16, Barnes was seen on jail surveillance choking Geffrard for two minutes straight before stomping on him 10 minutes later, telling investigators he wanted to see if he was still alive while admitting that, “he did not agree with his lifestyle because he was gay,” and that he “smelled and never cleaned himself.”
The family’s attorney, Josiah Graham, of Graham Injury Firm, said the beating went on for 21 minutes and not one deputy intervened.
Geffrard was declared brain dead on Dec. 26 and was kept on life support in order to harvest his organs. He died five days later.
“Somebody beat my kid up real bad, and then he kept doing it, he kept after he was out,” said Irving.
Geffrard suffered from mental health issues and so does Barnes, which raises questions as to why they were placed in the same cell.
“That’s a measure of screening within the jail,” said Broward County public defender Gordon Weekes. “That is a measure of making proper determinations about who you place into close confines with each other.”
Weekes also says the jail failed Geffrard and his family, writing a letter to Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony about the situation and about how those who suffer from mental health issues are repeatedly overlooked at the jail.
“We basically had an individual die at the hands of other individuals at the jail and no one did anything to intervene,” said Weekes.
BSO released a statement to Local 10 News regarding this incident, which read:
“BSO’s Internal Affairs Unit has an open and active administrative investigation into the incident, and two BSO employees, a detention deputy and a detention technician, are currently on administrative investigative leave with pay.”
LETTER FROM PUBLIC DEFENDER:
BSO LETTER ON INMATES WITH MENTAL ILLNESS
ARREST FORM FOR KEVIN BARNES