A fourth inmate from Hays State Prison died Tuesday at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, the Georgia Department of Corrections has confirmed. The GBI has been called in to investigate and calls have been made to GBI spokesman John Bankhead. The Chattanooga Times-Free Press is reporting the inmate was transferring to another prison and was killed by another Hays prison inmate.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation officials said Pippa Lamont Hall-Jackson, 19, was killed Tuesday after he was taken to the Central Georgia facility. Hall-Jackson was serving a 20-year sentence for aggravated assault in Dekalb County.
Three other Hays State inmates have been killed recently. Nathaniel Reynolds, 30, died Jan. 18. Two men have been charged with his murder. Damien McClain was killed in a fight in a prison cell on Dec. 26, and Derrick Stubbs was found dead while in protective custody on Dec. 22. Hays State Prison is a close security facility in Trion that houses male offenders with behavioral problems that cannot be addressed at other prisons and Mental Health Level II offenders.
Jerry Scott, GBI special agent in charge, declined to say where Reynolds, a convicted murderer serving a life sentence, was coming from when he was attacked. But multiple sources inside the prison say Reynolds was ambushed as he was leaving the prison's holding cell and heading back to his dorm. No one should have known where he was, the sources said.
"Those inmates were outside the door," said a prison guard, who asked to be anonymous for fear of retaliation. "They stabbed [Reynolds] before he got his foot in his dorm."
The other victim, Damion MacClain, was strangled and beaten in his bed on Christmas night after the doors to his cell should have been locked. Inmate Daniel Ferguson, a murderer already sentenced to life, has been charged in connection with MacClain's death.
GBI agents were at the prison Thursday investigating McClain's death and that of 25-year-old Derrick Stubbs, who was found dead Dec. 19.
While Georgia Department of Corrections officials have been mum on Stubbs' death, his mother, Shawn Singleton, said she was told her son was being held in protective custody after a fight when he was found dead. Stubbs had been at Hays for more than a year on two counts of armed robbery.GBI agents were at the prison Thursday investigating McClain's death and that of 25-year-old Derrick Stubbs, who was found dead Dec. 19.
While Georgia Department of Corrections officials have been mum on Stubbs' death, his mother, Shawn Singleton, said she was told her son was being held in protective custody after a fight when he was found dead. Stubbs had been at Hays for more than a year on two counts of armed robbery.
The GBI hasn't released any details on the death of Derrick Stubbs, who was beaten so severely that he died from his injuries after he was put in protective custody on Dec. 19. Georgia Department of Corrections officials confirmed Stubbs died Wednesday, and they said the department and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are investigating his death. But department spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan cited an open investigation and would not give further details.
Stubbs had been housed at Hays for more than a year, his mother said, after he was convicted on two armed robbery charges. A McDuffie County newspaper reported three years ago that Stubbs was sentenced to 60 years in prison for robbing a gas station and food store with a 19-year-old in July 2008.
Families of both men told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that they had received threatening phone calls from inmates asking for money before their loved ones were killed. State corrections officials have said the extortion claims are under investigation, but they wouldn't talk about them. One person has been arrested in connection with MacClain's death. Daniel Ferguson, a convicted murderer already serving a life sentence, was charged with murder. The GBI hasn't revealed any details about Stubbs, who was in protective custody when he was found dead.