Inmate who claimed abuse dies

RALEIGH -- Timothy E. Helms, a mentally ill inmate whose skull was smashed following an August 2008 fire in his prison cell, died at a Greensboro hospital Sunday morning.

He was 49.

The blunt-force trauma Helms suffered while in custody at a state prison in Taylorsville caused extensive bleeding in his brain, leaving him bedridden and unable to walk. Though he showed some signs of improvement in the past two years, he could still hardly speak or perform such mundane tasks as feeding himself.

An SBI investigation failed to determine precisely how Helms received his injuries. Alvin W. Keller Jr., secretary of the N.C. Department of Correction, suggested the prisoner may have fallen and hit his head.

Helms told his doctors and The News & Observer that he was beaten by Corrections officers wielding billy clubs.

His lawyer, Lynne Holtkamp of Chapel Hill, visited Helms last month and said he appeared to be doing somewhat better.

"We're shocked," Holtkamp said Monday. "There was no indication he was ill beyond his normal condition or that death was imminent."

Prisons spokesman Keith Acree said Helms had lived for the past year at Kindred Hospital in Greensboro, a long-term, acute-care facility that treats state inmates. Helms stopped breathing shortly after 4:30 a.m. Sunday, and the hospital staff was unable to revive him, Acree said.

Acree declined to comment further, pending an autopsy.

Holtkamp, hired by the guardian appointed on Helms' behalf after his injuries, filed a legal claim against the state in January alleging gross negligence and seeking tens of thousands of dollars in damages.

As part of the state's response, the office of Attorney General Roy Cooper filed subpoenas against an N&O reporter seeking all documents, notes, tape recordings and telephone records related to the newspaper's efforts to tell Helms' story, as well as an order for the reporter to be questioned by a state lawyer under oath. Those subpoenas, which the newspaper's lawyers said violated legal protections provided members of the media under state law, were dropped last month.

Holtkamp said it is not clear how Helms' legal claim will be affected by his death.

Psychiatric disorders

A native of Concord, Helms had an IQ of 79 and had attended special education classes until he dropped out of high school at 16. Diagnosed with multiple psychiatric disorders, he was frequently admitted to state mental health facilities, including Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh.

He was sentenced to three life terms on three counts of second-degree murder following a 1994 drunken-driving collision. Helms, who did not have a driver's license, claimed a drinking buddy who died in the accident was driving the truck.

Helms' disabilities made him a difficult inmate for the prison system. In 14 years behind bars, he racked up 125 rules infractions, ranging from threatening to harm staff and possessing a razor to using profanity and hoarding 84 postage stamps.

As punishment, he had spent at least 1,459 days in disciplinary or administrative segregation - terms used in North Carolina to describe solitary confinement. He was let out of his maximum security cell at Alexander Correctional Institution only a few hours each week to shower or go to an outdoor recreation cage.

Alexander Correctional had been under scrutiny since 2006, when The Charlotte Observer reported that the staff routinely used a nylon strap similar to a dog leash to tether inmates whom administrators considered dangerous. Correction officials in Raleigh said they never approved use of the leash and ordered the staff at Alexander to stop.

Correction Department policy is that no inmate should be housed in isolation for more than 60 days in a stretch, a period prisoners commonly refer to as being in "The Hole." But Helms' prison records show he was kept in isolation 571 consecutive days.

Helms also spent time in the system's inpatient mental health ward at Central Prison. His psychiatric evaluations say he was diagnosed with at least six mental disorders, including conditions that cause explosive anger and antisocial behavior.

In the year leading up to the fire, a staff psychologist visited Helms monthly, talking to him through a small slot in the steel door of his cell. Even though he was locked in, Helms was typically handcuffed and shackled.

Helms' prison and medical records say he had used a razor to repeatedly cut himself and was banging his head against the wall. He smeared himself with feces and told prison staff he had been eating his own excrement. In several interviews with the psychologist, Helms alleged he was being abused by guards and pleaded to be let out of isolation. He asked to be given a metal bar to secure his cell door from the inside, so guards couldn't get to him.

Batteries, strip of metal

Prison officials say that on Aug. 3, 2008, Helms used two batteries and a scrap of metal to set his bedding ablaze, a tactic sometimes used by prisoners in solitary confinement to commit suicide or force guards to take them out of their cells.

Security camera footage shows officers dragging Helms from his smoke-filled cell and out of view into a nearby shower. He was later carried to at least two other cells.

The following day, Helms arrived at the emergency room at Catawba Valley Medical Center in Hickory in the back of a squad car, escorted by correctional officers.X-rays showed blood hemorrhaging inside his brain stem, along with a broken nose and fractured skull.

A doctor wrote in Helms' medical records that he had bruises and welts on his body "consistent with multiple blows from a billy club" from the prior day.

Helms' family was never told of his injuries until they were contacted by The N&O six months later. When his brother e-sent e-mail to the prison system seeking information, a spokesman replied: "He is at Central Prison where there have been no problems and no use of force."

Correction officials have strenuously denied that Helms was beaten at Alexander and that correctional officers there carried clubs. However, the video footage later released from that night appears to show officers with black batons hanging from their belts.

Keller, the Correction secretary, said last year that the SBI probe found no evidence of wrongdoing. He has refused to release a copy of the investigative report. The only criminal charges filed in the case were against Helms, though they were later dropped.

In early 2009, the advocacy group Disability Rights North Carolina petitioned the correction secretary to release Helms under a program that discharges prisoners whose medical infirmity ensures they no longer pose a public threat. That request was denied.