A teen murder suspect was found stomped to death in a Mississippi jail — with a harrowing video capturing him limp and bloodied on the floor.
Mielun Butler, 18, was booked in the Hinds County Detention Center on July 1 on a murder charge for the fatal shooting of Melvin Edwards, 32, at the notoriously dangerous Pine Ridge Garden Apartments in Jackson last month.
Just two days later, on the morning of July 3, a disturbing video circulated on social media of a person kicking Butler’s limp and bloodied body as he lay on the floor of the Raymond jail.
An autopsy later confirmed he died from blunt force trauma to the head, with evidence showing he had been stomped to death, WAPT reported.
“It appeared he had shoe prints all over his head,” Hinds County Coroner Jeremiah Howard told Mississippi Today.
Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones confirmed the authenticity of the gory video and said an unidentified detention officer who was on patrol at the time of the killing had been placed on leave with pay this week while the incident remains under investigation.
Jones ceded operational control of the jail to Wendell France, a court-appointed federal receiver, in October. A federal judge will be holding a court hearing on Friday to discuss conditions at the jail.
Butler died the same day that a Hinds County Chancery Court judge ordered the sheriff’s office to hand over jail death records that it had withheld from the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The sheriff said he believed the teenager’s killing could be gang-related.
“I think it’s no secret that some of the violence that we have been witnessing in our community has eventually spilled over into the jail,” Jones said. “We believe there may be a strong connection.”
Butler was the second man arrested and charged in connection with Edwards’ death.
Municipal Court Judge Jeffery Reynolds ordered the 18-year-old held behind bars on a $1 million bond at his initial appearance on July 2.
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