CRAWFORD COUNTY, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — New surveillance video reveals the events that led up to the death of 26-year-old Jacob Jones, an inmate who died at the Crawford County Jail on Oct. 15.
Crawford County Sheriff Jim Damante said a preliminary investigation by the medical examiner revealed Jones died from a drug overdose. The sheriff’s department released dash cam video of Jones appearing to swallow drugs before he was booked in jail on Oct. 14.
The video shows Jones and his uncle were booked into the jail around 4 p.m. on October 14 and taken to a jail pod around 10 p.m. that night. Jones died about 20 hours after he was first booked into the jail. In the early morning hours, the surveillance video shows Jones walking around the cell and returning to lie down.
Around noon, the video shows the inmates getting lunch and filling up cups with water, including Jones’ uncle who then asks the jailers for help with Jones. Moments after Jones asks for help, the video shows jailers coming in to help Jones. Jailers then quickly carry Jones who appears to be limp to the booking room where they perform CPR. Jones is taken to the hospital by paramedics and is pronounced dead.
However, Adam Rose, an attorney for Jones’ family said Jones’ uncle asking for help at lunchtime wasn’t the first time inmates tried to get help for Jones. Rose sent KNWA/FOX24 affidavits of four inmates who described asking for help from the jailers before the lunchtime instance seen in the video. Rose said the reason the video doesn’t accurately show the other inmates asking for help is because of the way the camera is set up in the jail pod. Rose said viewers of the video are not able to see the door where the inmates were asking for help hours earlier.
Rose said he has asked for an independent autopsy of Jones to determine if receiving care earlier would have prevented Jones’ death.
“Whether how much time he would have had, or how helpful it would have been, had he been helped much earlier, would that have prevented his ultimate death at the end,” Rose said.
KNWA/FOX24 reached out to Crawford County Sheriff Damante for comment on the surveillance video but did not hear back.