Jonathan D. Ellis
Jonathan D. Ellis was a 25-year-old man who died on December 1, 2017, while held at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail in Portsmouth, Virginia. Jail officials said at the time that the cause of death was not immediately available. A 2018 Daily Press report said he died by suicide, and the jail's superintendent at the time said there were not enough staff to keep watch over people held there. Minutes of a jail board meeting, reported by the Daily Press in 2019, quote the head of jail security, Capt. Thurman Barnes, saying an officer was tied up with other duties and there was no second set of eyes on the floor during the suicide.
Cause of death, as reported: Died by suicide (neglect alleged). Capt. Thurman Barnes told the jail board, according to meeting minutes, that an officer was tied up with other duties and there was no second set of eyes on the floor, and the jail's superintendent said there were not enough staff to watch inmates.
Reported by: Hampton Roads Regional Jail (the agency that held him); Capt. Thurman Barnes, according to jail board meeting minutes (the agency that held him). The only account of how this person died comes from the agency that held him.