Video of Autistic Ohio Teen’s Jail Death Undercuts Sheriff’s Report Calling It Suicide
Surveillance video from Ohio’s Montgomery County Jail surfaced from an unidentified source in early June 2024, showing the last hours before 19-year-old Isaiah Trammell died in custody in March 2023. As PLN reported, he died three days after transport to a hospital with what Sheriff Rob Streck called a self-inflicted “blunt force head trauma,” one of seven deaths at the jail in just seven months. [See: PLN, Nov. 2023, p.50.]
Trammell, who was autistic, was arrested when a neighbor called 911, misinterpreting the teen’s loud and angry phone call to a family member expressing anxiety over an upcoming job interview. Unknown to him or his family because of shoddy police record-keeping, there was an outstanding misdemeanor warrant from a previous incident. Instead of being taken to a hospital, he was placed in jail.
There surveillance video captured deputies taunting and belittling Trammell, calling him “ridiculous” and “embarrassing.” They strapped him into a restraint chair, threatening worse if he didn’t calm down. His pleas for medication, a phone call—even a blanket—went ignored. After that, according to Montgomery County Jail Coalition (MCJC) co-chair Joel R. Puce, Trammell “was suffering so badly that he threw his own body against the wall repeatedly, right until suffering a head trauma.”
After learning that her son’s death was prompted by mistreatment from jail guards, Brandy Abner appeared before a County Commissioners meeting on June 25, 2024, asking: “How much longer will these tragic events be swept under the rug? He begged for mercy. He begged for someone to listen. He begged for a phone call. He begged for medicine. He begged for a simple drink of water. […] His pleas and clear signs and symptoms went ignored.”
Commissioners, however, offered the grieving mom little more than sympathy, noting they have no authority over the Sheriff in jail operations. Streck acknowledged that Trammell should not have been brought to jail given his mental health issues. Yet he insisted that jail staff acted appropriately and refused to issue any sanctions.
In response to a petition filed by MCJC, the state Bureau of Adult Detention (BAD) reported in July 2024 that it had found the County in violation of state jail standards—something not previously made public. However, BAD also said that Streck’s staff had submitted remediation plans and was working on additional areas of improvement, lauding the Sheriff and his department for having no overdose deaths since July 2023.
Sources: Columbus Dispatch, WKEF
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