Grenada City Council: Justice Department investigation needed in man’s jail death

Robert Loggins died inside the Grenada County Jail in 2018. The Grenada City Council is asking for an independent investigation by the Justice Department regarding his death.

By Jerry Mitchell
Mississippi Center For Investigative Reporting

The Grenada City Council is calling for an independent investigation by the Justice Department into the 2018 death of Robert Loggins inside the Grenada County Jail.

“The main thing is we want the family and we want our citizens and everyone to understand that we have no bias in this and we want to be open and transparent,” said Councilman Lewis Johnson.

The Mississippi’s Legislative Black Caucus has already asked the Justice Department to investigate, calling for “justice in the death of Mr. Loggins and a full disclosure and explanation of the actions of officers.”

Councilman Lewis Johnson

If the department determines that people need to be held accountable, that is what will happen, Johnson said. “We’re not here to protect anybody on the basis of working for the city.”

Calls for an investigation came after the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting published a video of Loggins’ death inside the jail on Nov. 29, 2018. The video shows Loggins slowly rolling when officers get on top of him inside the Grenada County Jail, with one officer appearing to kneel on his neck.

Three and a half minutes later, they got off him. The 26-year-old never moved again. More than six minutes passed before anyone checked his pulse or his breathing.

Despite that, the state of Mississippi concluded Loggins’ death was an “accident.” The alleged culprit? Methamphetamine toxicity.

After viewing the video as well as the autopsy report and photos, renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden concluded the death was a homicide, saying the methamphetamine was very low and not a fatal amount. “They killed him by piling on top of him,” he said. “He absolutely died from some kind of asphyxia.”

MCIR has learned the state’s pathologist may have never seen this jail video before ruling Loggins’ death an accident. The video wasn’t contained in the pathologist’s file on the case.

It is not clear if the pathologist was told that officers used a Taser on him eight times. The manufacturer warns against using the weapon more than a few times in a row.

A Mississippi Bureau of Investigation concluded no foul play was involved in Loggins’ death. Officers have yet to respond to the litigation, but they denied in interviews with MBI that they had done anything wrong.

Loggins’ wife, Rika Jones, the administrator for his estate, has filed a lawsuit in federal court against those involved, accusing them of causing her husband’s wrongful death.

After seeing the jail video, Dr. Heddy-Dale Matthias, a critical care physician in Madison, wondered why emergency responders didn’t take Loggins to the hospital. “It would seem prudent at that time to try to get the subject to cooperate to go to the hospital for care,” she said.

She called his treatment at the jail “medically objectionable. There was seemingly no reason for four to five officers to jump on a rolling, handcuffed addicted suspect.”

After the officers got off him, “he appeared dead to me,” she said. “He was lifeless and ignored by multiple police officers for at least six minutes, and then to not give CPR for at least another four minutes seems unconscionable.”

Jerry Mitchell is an investigative reporter for the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization that is exposing wrongdoing, educating and empowering Mississippians, and raising up the next generation of investigative reporters. Sign up for MCIR’s newsletters here.

Email Jerry.Mitchell@MississippiCIR.org. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.