Jonathan Sanders

Jonathan Sanders, 39, a horse trainer, died on July 8, 2015 in Stonewall, Mississippi after an encounter with police officer Kevin Herrington that witnesses said involved a chokehold lasting as long as 20 to 30 minutes. Sanders had been riding a horse-drawn buggy near a gas station when he intervened in an argument between Herrington and another man he knew; witnesses said Herrington's patrol lights startled Sanders's horse, throwing him to the ground, after which Herrington grabbed him and restrained him on the ground. Multiple witnesses told the family's attorneys Herrington said he was "going to get that [racial slur]" before the confrontation and that Sanders repeatedly said "I can't breathe" before he died at the scene. A grand jury declined to indict Herrington in January 2016, and a second grand jury concluded in March 2016 that Sanders had choked to death after swallowing cocaine he was trying to hide, finding no excessive force was used. No one has ever been charged in Sanders's death.

Stonewall, MS · Clarke County

• 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 confrontation, the restraint, and Sanders's death at the scene, per the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation's inquiry and multiple witness accounts relayed by the family's attorneys.
• Multiple witnesses told the family's attorneys, Chokwe Antar Lumumba and C.J. Lawrence, that Herrington restrained Sanders on the ground for an extended period, with estimates from witnesses ranging up to 20 to 30 minutes; the attorneys themselves noted witness time estimates under stress are often inflated.
• At least one witness reported hearing Herrington say he was "going to get that [racial slur]" in reference to Sanders before the physical confrontation began.
• A witness who offered to retrieve a breathing mask to help Sanders said Herrington refused the offer; witnesses also reported hearing Sanders repeat "I can't breathe."
• A grand jury declined to indict Herrington on any charge in January 2016; a second grand jury review in March 2016 concluded Sanders died of asphyxiation from "acute cocaine toxicity" after swallowing cocaine, and found police had not used excessive force in restraining him.
• Herrington claimed Sanders reached for his service weapon during the struggle, a claim witnesses disputed.

• Whether Sanders's death was caused primarily by asphyxiation from restraint, as multiple eyewitnesses' accounts suggested, or from cocaine toxicity as the grand jury concluded, was disputed by the family's attorneys, who said a preliminary autopsy review pointed to manual strangulation, and has never been resolved by any criminal trial.
• Whether Herrington in fact used a racial slur before the encounter, as multiple witnesses told the family's attorneys, was never independently adjudicated.
• The exact duration Sanders was restrained — estimated by different witnesses from several minutes up to 30 — was never precisely established.

• Wikipedia — “Death of Jonathan Sanders” (sourced case history)
• Southern Poverty Law Center — “Questions Linger over the Death of Jonathan Sanders at the Hands of a Mississippi Policeman”
• Fox News / AP — “Grand jury: no indictment of Mississippi police officer”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs