An 18-year-old booked at the Hinds County Detention Center was stomped to death, Hinds County Coroner Jeremiah Howard told Mississippi Today on Thursday.
“It appeared he had shoe prints all over his head,” Howard told Mississippi Today, identifying the teen as Mielun Butler. Butler had been booked July 1 after an arrest in connection with a killing at a south Jackson apartment complex, Mississippi Today reported.
A video circulating on social media by the morning of July 3 showed an unidentified person kicking Butler’s limp, bloodied body while he lay on the floor, Mississippi Today reported. The sheriff confirmed the video’s authenticity at a Monday news conference, according to Mississippi Today.
Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones told Mississippi Today he placed a detention officer on administrative leave with pay this week and would not identify the officer because the matter remains under investigation. Jones said he believed the incident could be gang-related. Mississippi Today reported that Jones ceded operational control of the jail in October to Wendell France, a court-appointed federal receiver, and that federal Judge Carlton Reeves will hold a hearing Friday on jail conditions.
Mississippi Today reported Butler had been charged with murder in the June 13 fatal shooting of Melvin Edwards at the Pine Ridge Garden Apartments and was the second person charged in that case. At Butler’s initial appearance on July 2, Municipal Court Judge Jeffery Reynolds set a $1 million bond, which the judge acknowledged the teenager could not post. Butler was dead by July 3, Mississippi Today reported. The death occurred the same day a Hinds County Chancery Court judge ordered the sheriff’s office to turn over jail death records it had withheld from the Southern Poverty Law Center, Mississippi Today reported.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
