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The Maryland corrections department on Friday announced that it has filed murder charges against Gordon Staron Jr., 33, in the killing of his cellmate, Javarick Gantt, 34, who was deaf and used sign language to communicate and who was being held on a probation violation.
Staron, of Harford County, was being detained on a murder charge in the fatal stabbing of 63-year-old Keith Bell at an East Baltimore bus stop. The Baltimore Banner earlier this month reported that Staron was a cellmate of Gantt and the subject of the investigation. Staron’s attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services shared few details on the Gantt case, saying only that the administrative investigation into his death remains active and open. But charging documents indicate that a review of surveillance footage showed Staron and Gantt locked into “Cell 3″ together around 7:21 p.m. the night before Gantt was killed, and that no one else entered or exited the cell.
A witness dubbed “Witness B” reported hearing Gantt “making noises and banging on his cell door sometime between 10 p.m.” and midnight before he was killed, according to the documents.
The pairing of Gannt with Staron, as well as an ACLU report on conditions at Central Booking, has raised questions about the facility’s ability to safely house people, especially those with disabilities.
Quinette Gantt, Javarick’s mother, said she was glad someone was being charged in the murder of her son but remained confused about what he was doing housed with Staron.
“I’m just wondering why was Javarick in the same cell with him,” Gantt said.
Corrections department officials have released few details about Gantt’s killing, but Gantt’s mother said she was told her son was strangled to death. A source who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details said Staron and Gantt were kept in the same cell starting on Sept. 26 until Gantt’s death on Oct. 9.
Gantt was found “unresponsive” around 6:30 a.m. that day and his death was later ruled a homicide.
He was deaf and used sign language to communicate, and just before his death appeared healthy, well-fed and happy, according to his friend Anthony Taylor, who said he was on a video call with Gantt less than 24 hours before he was killed.
Not only was Gantt deaf, Taylor said, he stood at 5-foot-4 and weighed “no more than 120 pounds.”
“You’re supposed to be housed around the people who fit the criteria that you have,” said Taylor, who has himself done time at the jail. “You’re [people with disabilities are] not supposed to be housed around other people, and they’re not supposed to be in a cell.”
Although people with disabilities are supposed to receive certain accommodations, Gantt was treated more or less like everyone else, if not worse, according to one man who said he was housed in the same tier of Central Booking as Gantt for four days earlier this year.
Conditions at Central Booking have come under increased scrutiny since last month, when the ACLU publicly filed a scathing report on conditions at the jail there, which included “alarming” conditions at the medical infirmary and a perplexing intake process that led jail operators to have rows of men sleeping on plastic “boats” in the gymnasium.
bconarck@thebaltimorebanner.com
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Ben Conarck is a criminal justice reporter for The Baltimore Banner. Previously, he covered healthcare and investigations for the Miami Herald and criminal justice for the Florida Times-Union.
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