Jamycheal Mitchell

Jamycheal Mitchell, 24, who had schizoaffective disorder, died on August 19, 2015 in his cell at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail in Portsmouth, Virginia, roughly four months after his arrest for allegedly stealing about $5 worth of snacks — a Mountain Dew, a Snickers bar, and a Zebra Cake — from a 7-Eleven. A judge twice ordered him transferred to a state mental hospital for competency restoration treatment; clerical errors meant his name was never placed on the hospital's waiting list, and the transfer never happened. He spent 100 days in restrictive housing, was allegedly struck on the knuckles with a flashlight and mocked by correctional officers, and lost 46 pounds before he was found dead, in a cell smeared with feces, of heart failure accompanied by “wasting syndrome.” After a years-long investigation, the Portsmouth Commonwealth's Attorney's Office released a 166-page report in 2019 calling his death “tragic and likely avoidable” but concluded no charges could be sought due to missing information. No one has ever been charged in Mitchell's death.

Portsmouth, VA

• 2015: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The shoplifting arrest, the competency-restoration orders, and Mitchell's death, per the Portsmouth Commonwealth's Attorney's 166-page investigative report and a Department of Justice civil rights investigation.
• A Portsmouth General District Court judge found Mitchell incompetent to stand trial on May 21, 2015 and ordered his transfer to Eastern State Hospital for treatment; that transfer never occurred because a clerical error left him off the hospital's waiting list.
• Mitchell spent 100 days in restrictive housing after refusing a tuberculosis test, classified as “administrative restriction — unable to adapt”; a fellow incarcerated person told investigators his speech deteriorated into “gibberish” over his months there.
• The state medical examiner ruled Mitchell died of heart failure accompanied by wasting syndrome, having lost 46 pounds; he was found in a cell described as smeared with feces and soaked in urine.
• The jail's own internal investigation cleared employees of wrongdoing; two separate state agency investigations were unable to determine exactly what happened.
• The Portsmouth Commonwealth's Attorney's Office released a 166-page report in February 2019 calling Mitchell's death “tragic and likely avoidable” but stated “no charges can be sought at this time,” citing missing information needed to establish probable cause against specific individuals.
• The U.S. Department of Justice completed a civil rights investigation into the Hampton Roads Regional Jail in December 2016, finding reasonable cause to believe it failed to provide constitutionally adequate medical and mental health care to prisoners; the jail later operated under a federal consent decree.
• A federal judge approved a $3 million settlement for Mitchell's family in 2019, writing the case involved “some of the most appalling and inhumane allegations” she had encountered in over 30 years on the federal bench, while noting the settlement “does not determine any ultimate liability.”

• Which specific individuals bore responsibility for the clerical error that left Mitchell off the state hospital's waiting list, and why that error was never corrected over four months, has never been publicly identified.
• The full extent of the alleged physical abuse and mockery by correctional officers, described by a fellow incarcerated witness, was investigated but the prosecutor's office said it lacked sufficient information to establish probable cause against specific people.
• Why two separate state investigations were each unable to determine exactly what happened inside the jail has not been fully explained in public reporting.

• ACLU — “Our Criminal Justice System Failed Jamycheal Mitchell”
• WAVY — “Prosecutors: No charges sought in death of Jamycheal Mitchell”
• 13News Now (WVEC) — “Judge signs off on $3 million settlement for Jamycheal Mitchell's jail death”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs