Nurse agrees to plead guilty in connection to Walker Co. inmate’s death

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - A member of the medical team responsible for caring for inmates in the Walker County Jail has agreed to plead guilty in connection to the in-custody death of Tony Mitchell.

Daniel Wyers will plead guilty to deprivation of rights under color of law, according to federal court records made public on Wednesday.

Wyers is the sixth person to plead guilty in connection to Mitchell’s death, which has been ruled a homicide.

Mitchell was arrested on Jan. 12, 2023 after he shot at deputies who were responding to a welfare check, according to a news release from the Walker County Sheriff’s Office.

Mitchell had “difficulty walking or standing on his own… was disoriented, non-combative, and could not follow instructions” when booked into the jail, according to federal documents.

Wyers worked twice while Mitchell was in custody but did not conduct an initial mental health screening, even though he was specifically told by a nurse practitioner to conduct a psychiatric consult, according to federal documents.

Wyers told investigators he saw Mitchell was left naked and covered in feces in a cold cell, but “took no steps to address [Mitchell] remaining naked in the cold cell without bedding, thereby leaving him in cruel conditions without cause.”

Wyers also said he agreed with others in the jail who thought Mitchell “ought to be punished on the incorrect assumption that [Mitchell] purposefully shot at law enforcement prior to his arrest.”

He took no steps to provide care, or alert any supervisors of the “unnecessarily harsh conditions” or question why he was told by jail staff that Mitchell was “too combative” to receive care, even though Wyers said he never witnessed that behavior and found Mitchell to be intermittently lucid.

The second time Wyers was working in the Walker County Jail he was asked by the Health Service Administrator to evaluate Mitchell but did not.

According to court records, “Wyers reduced to provide medical care to [Mitchell] despite his objectively obvious need because he had no interest in providing care to someone he thought was unworthy of it and because he feared job ramifications if he offered care against the perceived ‘prevailing culture.’”

Wyers also told federal investigators he failed to do anything that might appear as helping Mitchell because he feared Walker County Jail leadership would ask his employer to move him to a different jail, further from his house, “which might create an inconvenient commute for him.”

Federal court records said that Wyers “concluding holding [Mitchell] in cruel conditions without access to medical and mental health care was purposeful and he purposefully joined in the effort.”

Mitchell died on Jan. 26 and a state autopsy determined his cause of death was hypothermia with the contributed factor of sepsis from infected injuries obtained during incarceration and medical neglect, according to federal records.

WBRC reached out to Quality Correctional Health Care (QCHC), the company that provides both medical and mental health services at the Walker County Jail where Mitchell was housed. The statement they provided Friday afternoon is as follows:

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