Three more inmates from Butner federal prison die from coronavirus outbreak
Three more inmates at the federal prison at Butner have died due to complications from the COVID-19, the Federal Bureau of Prisons announced Monday.
Two of the inmates died Sunday night, according to news releases. One inmate died on Monday.
There have now been at least four inmate deaths at the prison complex in Granville County, where more than 80 inmates and staff members have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons website.
Inmates Gary Edward Nixon, Andrew Williams and an inmate listed as John Doe in a news release each died at a local hospital after being transported from Federal Correctional Institution Butner I and testing positive for COVID-19. They each had underlying medical conditions, which put them at higher risk for complications, the news releases stated.
Nixon, 57, went into respiratory failure March 29 and was taken to a hospital after being evaluated by medical staff at the prison. He died Sunday. He had been at Butner since May 21, 2019. He was serving a 155-month supervised release violation term.
Williams, 78, was admitted to the hospital on April 6 after testing positive for COVID-19 on April 5. He died Sunday. Williams had been at Butner since November 20, 2015. He was serving a life sentence for armed bank robbery and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Doe, 46, went into respiratory failure on March 30 and was taken to a local hospital for more treatment. While there he tested positive for COVID-19 and died Monday. Doe had been in custody at Butner since Oct. 22, 2019. He was serving a 57-month term for making materially false statements.
The News & Observer has contacted a prison spokesperson to ask why the inmate was listed as John Doe in the news release, a name sometimes used when authorities do not know someone’s true identity.
An employee was the first positive test at Butner, which has two medium-security prisons, a low-security prison and a medical center, The News & Observer reported. The bureau reported it March 26. Four days later, it reported two inmates had tested positive.
The number of positive tests among inmates increased last weekend, leading the federal Bureau of Prisons to include Butner among several prisons allowed to accelerate the early release of inmates.
As of Monday, there were 388 federal inmates and 201 staff members with confirmed COVID-19 cases nationwide, according to the bureau’s website. There have been 13 federal inmate deaths attributed to COVID-19.
Staff writer Dan Kane contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 13, 2020 at 5:30 PM.
