McCaskill v. Thomas (Ex parte Ala. Dep't of Corr.)

Decision Date26 February 2016
Docket Number1141424.
Parties Ex parte ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS et al. (In re Veronica McCaskill, as administrator of the Estate of Tyus Elliott, deceased v. Kim Thomas et al.).
CourtAlabama Supreme Court

Luther Strange, atty. gen., and Andrew Brasher, deputy atty. gen., and Anne Adams Hill, gen. counsel, and Bart Harmon, asst. atty. gen., Alabama Department of Corrections, for petitioners.

Joe M. Reed of Joe M. Reed & Associates, LLC, Montgomery, for respondent.

BOLIN

, Justice.

The Alabama Department of Corrections (“the DOC”);1 Cheryl Price, former warden of Bibb Correctional Facility (“the facility”); Dwayne Estes, former assistant warden of the facility; and Captain John Hutton, a correctional officer at the facility (the individual defendants are hereinafter collectively referred to as “the prison defendants), petition this Court for a writ of mandamus directing the Montgomery Circuit Court to vacate its order denying their motion for a summary judgment and to enter a new order granting the motion on the ground that they are entitled to immunity. We grant the petition and issue the writ.

I. Facts and Procedural History

On May 25, 2010, Tyus Elliott, an inmate at the facility, died from a stab wound

inflicted by Dexter Fields—another inmate at the facility.2 The stabbing incident occurred in the “D” dormitory, an open-bed bay area within the facility that houses approximately 106 inmates. The facts concerning the incident relied on by the parties come primarily from the deposition testimony of Fields, Cpt. Hutton, and Price. Fields testified that on May 25, 2010, at approximately 3:30 a.m., he was in a classroom in the back of the “D” dormitory where he was downloading some videos onto a contraband cellular telephone (“cell phone”);3 Fields actually possessed three or four contraband cell phones. While Fields was downloading the videos onto the cell phone, Elliott entered the room and began talking to Fields, asking him for a cigarette and/or a cigarette lighter. While Elliott distracted Fields, another inmate, Kevin Maull, entered the room and took Fields's cell phone from a window ledge where Fields had laid it. Fields moved toward Maull in an attempt to retrieve the cell phone. However, Fields retreated when Maull “brandished” a knife. Maull backed out of the classroom, accompanied by three or four inmates. Fields testified that he did not suspect that Elliott had played a role in Maull's taking the cell phone. At approximately 6:00 a.m., Fields was summoned to the shift office where he was questioned by a correctional officer, Officer Bryan, regarding “the phone situation and everything.” Fields denied having had a cell phone. Officer Bryan allowed Fields to return to the “D” dormitory, after which numerous correctional officers searched the dormitory—turning up several contraband items. After the search, Fields was summoned to meet with Cpt. Hutton. During Fields's meeting with Cpt. Hutton, Maull was escorted into the room. Cpt. Hutton told Fields that “this [is] the guy right here that upped the knife on you and took the phone.” Cpt. Hutton gave Fields and Maull a “living agreement” to sign, which indicated that the two could live peacefully together in the same dormitory without fighting. According to Fields, Maull did not go back to the “D” dormitory right then; Fields did not know exactly where Maull went or where he had been taken. Fields remained with Cpt. Hutton for approximately six or seven hours. During that time, a discussion ensued between Cpt. Hutton and Ms. McCall, the person responsible for bed assignments at the facility. McCall told Cpt. Hutton that she had made arrangements for Fields to be moved to another dormitory within the facility; McCall thought it would be best for Fields's own protection. However, Cpt. Hutton told Fields he could return to the “D” dormitory. When McCall asked Cpt. Hutton why he was going to send Fields back to the “D” dormitory, Cpt. Hutton replied that he “didn't give a damn if they killed each other.” Fields did not know to whom Cpt. Hutton was referring. Elliott's name was never brought up during the meeting between Cpt. Hutton, Fields, and Maull, and it never registered with Fields, during the meeting, that Elliott had been involved in the scheme to take his cell phone. On the way back to the “D” dormitory, Fields retrieved an “inmate-made” knife he had hidden in the yard of the facility. Fields retrieved the knife for his own protection because of the incident that had occurred earlier in the day between him and Maull. When Fields returned to the “D” dormitory, he discovered that his other cell phones were missing; he was informed by another inmate that Elliott had taken them. Fields saw Elliott standing against the wall “brandishing” a knife and acting “strange.” Fields approached Elliott to confront him, at which time Elliott hit Fields in the mouth, prompting Fields to spontaneously stab Elliott in the chest area. Fields did not put “two and two together”—that Elliott had been involved in the first cell-phone incident—until he returned to the “D” dormitory and learned that Elliott had taken the other cell phones. Fields specifically testified in response to questioning by counsel for the prison defendants:

“A. Get back [to the dormitory], some of the stuff they packed up was scattered out, and the other phones I had were stolen, you know. Tyus Elliott went and got the remains after he found that I wasn't going to do anything, you know. Rumor got out that I wasn't going to do anything to Maull. That's when he took his mask off and showed his face. He went ahead on and took the remains of the phones and stuff like that.
“....
“Q. And [Elliott] stole those while you were up at—with Captain Hutton?
“A. Yes.
“Q. And how did you know that?
“A. Other inmates told me.
“Q. So if—it's about four o'clock still. What did you do when you found that out?
“A. I confronted him.
“Q. Okay. That's—and is that when ... you had a knife?
“A. Well, yes, I had got one then.
“....
“Q. So, anyway, you went to get—did you go to kill [Elliott] or just go get your stuff back?
“A. I ain't go to kill him, no. Wasn't even going to be none of that. The knife was on me just for protection because everybody kept on pulling them out on me, and I wasn't going to be pulled on anymore. That's the only reason why I had the knife. I had the knife before I even discovered that my other phones were missing. I picked the knife up from another place I had it hidden on the way back to the [dormitory].
“....
“Q. Okay, so you went by the yard on the way back, got your knife for protection?
“....
“A. I did not know that [Elliott] had stolen my phone before I had got the knife. I had got the knife so that I could protect myself due to being attacked earlier.
“....
“Q. And it was obvious to you that you checked your stuff and, [your] phone [s] [are] gone, right?
“A. Well, yes. Because he's standing on the wall and now he's got a knife and he's brandishing. He ain't even acting his self.
“....
“Q. All right. And so what's the first words or actions taken in this—in this confrontation?
“A. Well, I asked him—we exchanged some words. He said, say what you got to say. I asked him about my phone, and he tells me to get out of his face, you know what I'm saying. I don't move. And he swings, you know what I'm saying. I stab. End of story.
“....
“Q. And did you feel like you needed to stab him to protect yourself?
“A. It was spontaneous.
“....
“Q. Okay. So this thing between you and Elliott really just happened when you got back from Captain Hutton's office. Is that what you're saying? Not building up, it happened.
“A. At the time I wasn't [aware].
“Q. I got you. So you didn't even know you had a problem with Tyus Elliott ... until you got back in the dorm after talking with Captain Hutton [and put two and two together]?
“....
“A. Yes, at that moment.”

Cpt. Hutton testified in his deposition that when he arrived at the facility on the morning of May 25, 2010, he was informed by a correctional officer that there had been an incident on the night shift involving a cell phone that had been taken from Fields. Cpt. Hutton summoned Fields for questioning, but Fields was reluctant to talk and offered no information regarding the incident. Cpt. Hutton was subsequently informed by the same correctional officer that a superintendent had identified Maull as the person who had taken Fields's cell phone. Accordingly, Cpt. Hutton had Maull summoned for questioning as well. Cpt. Hutton asked Fields if Maull was the inmate who had taken his cell phone, to which Fields replied “yes.” Maull, on the other hand, denied that anything had happened. After Cpt. Hutton completed his investigation, Maull was detained in inmate-control services and then later confined to administrative segregation; Cpt. Hutton confined Maull for the purpose of separating him from Fields and because Maull had stolen something from Fields. Cpt. Hutton also wanted to make sure there was a cooling-down period and no payback against Maull by Fields. However, Cpt. Hutton did not consider Maull and Fields to be “enemies” per se because they had signed a “living agreement,” stating they had no problem living in the same dormitory. Cpt. Hutton then asked Fields if he felt threatened going back into the general prison population, to which Fields replied “no.” The superintendent who relayed the information to the correctional officer concerning the cell-phone incident never reported that a knife was involved in the conflict between Fields and Maull; Cpt. Hutton did not inquire of Fields or Maull if a knife had been involved.

On May 24, 2012, Veronica McCaskill, as administratrix of Elliott's estate, sued the DOC and the prison defendants asserting various claims of negligence and wantonness; the gravamen of the complaint is that the DOC and the prison defendants failed to confine Fields, the victim of the cell-phone incident, to administrative segregation so as to prevent Elliott's...

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