5 years later, public records released in NC inmate’s death: ‘I’m going to die’

John Neville told deputies from the floor of a jail cell at the Forsyth County Detention Center that he was going to die.

He pleaded for help.

He told them he couldn’t breathe.

But deputies continued pinning him to the ground on his stomach with his legs bent upwards toward his back, a position known for suffocating people.

He would eventually stop moving.

Five years ago this week, The News & Observer made its first public records request for information about Neville’s death.

And on Friday, the last records were provided — under court order.

The N&O and a coalition of other media outlets received a 723-page report created by the State Bureau of Investigation and body camera footage that had not previously been released. The North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner handed over the records only after a lengthy court battle between the news media and the local district attorney.

That fight continued even after charges were dropped against all six people who originally faced prosecution — five sheriff’s deputies and a nurse.

The contents of the newly released records, in many regards, underline what The N&O has already reported through interviews with Neville’s family and attorneys and the release of limited body camera footage, an autopsy report and other public records.

But videos released Friday show the full scope of what happened from the time Neville’s cellmate alerted deputies that he was having a seizure to when paramedics took him out of the detention center to be hospitalized.

The video shows him being pinned to the ground by the deputies’ hands and knees from 3:25 a.m. to 4:09 a.m. on Dec. 2, 2019, as the deputies focused more on their physical safety than his medical emergency.

The videos also show how unaware deputies and a nurse were that Neville’s condition had quickly deteriorated or that his heart had stopped. It also shows the lengths they went to revive him — while still holding him to the ground.

Around 30 times he shouted to deputies he couldn’t breathe.

Eleven minutes passed from the time he stopped moving to when deputies noticed something was wrong.

An inmate watched it happen from his cell.

“You killed him,” that inmate shouted, before letting out wails of anguish.

Neville’s heart stopped beating.

For more than an hour a nurse, police and paramedics worked to bring back Neville’s pulse.

Inmates sang “Amazing Grace.”

Epinephrine eventually brought back a heartbeat, and Neville was taken to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, in Winston-Salem, where he died.

Neither deputies, nor the district attorney let the public know.

Uncovering Neville’s death

The N&O received a tip about what happened inside Neville’s jail cell at the height of the public’s reaction to George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, where police held Floyd in the same risky position as Neville, though his legs were not bent upwards.

Like Neville, Floyd was a Black man who told officers he couldn’t breathe.

Derek Chauvin, a white officer, was convicted in Floyd’s death for kneeling on his neck and back; it was a witness’ video that brought his actions to light.

For Neville, there was no public witness.

Death by suffocation

An autopsy report determined Neville’s cause of death to be cardiac arrest due to compressional and positional suffocation that caused a lack of blood flow to the brain and led to the injury that ultimately killed him. Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill said the injury was caused by the position deputies were holding Neville in.

O’Neill charged Detention Officers Sarah E. Poole, Antonio M. Woodley and Christopher Stamper, Corp. Edward J. Roussel and Sgt. Lavette M. Williams with involuntary manslaughter. Also charged was nurse Michelle Heughins, an employee of private health care provider Wellpath.

Fighting for records

From the beginning, Mike Tadych, the attorney for the media outlets, argued that the release of information in Neville’s case would either confirm wrongdoing or validate the defendants’ actions.

But O’Neill argued that the release of public records could harm the integrity of the criminal case. In January 2021, without alerting the media coalition or its attorney, O’Neill went to a judge in Forsyth County to have sealed the 723-page SBI report and multiple body camera videos in the possession of the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

After learning The N&O and Tadych had not been notified, that the case wasn’t in the proper jurisdiction, and that past case law made the records public, the judge reversed his decision, but sealed the records for 60 days to give O’Neill and his attorneys time to appeal.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in the North Carolina General Assembly tried three times to stop the release of death-investigation records through policy change, including pending legislation.

While that was happening, the news outlets’ case made its way through the court system, and on Jan. 18, Wake County Superior Court Judge Vinston Rozier Jr. ordered the records’ release.

It wasn’t until Friday that The N&O received those records.

And in all the time the records were fought over, the deputies’ attorney died, their charge was dismissed through a grand jury and the family reached a $3 million wrongful death settlement with Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough and his office.

The grand jury did indict Heughins, but that charge, too, was dropped. Members of the Neville family requested in September 2023 that her charge be dismissed so they could begin to move on.

Neither Chris Clifton nor Mike Grace, the family’s attorneys, responded to a request for comment from The N&O.

This story was originally published June 17, 2025 at 12:21 PM.

Danielle Battaglia

McClatchy DC

Danielle Battaglia is the D.C. correspondent for The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer, leading coverage of North Carolina’s congressional delegation and elections. She also covers the White House. Her career has spanned three North Carolina newsrooms where she has covered crime, courts and local, state and national politics. She has won two McClatchy President’s awards and numerous national and state awards for her work.