It’s been nearly three months since the family of Samuel Hayes Jr. buried him, and on Wednesday evening, dozens of his friends and loved ones rallied outside the St. Louis City Justice Center, calling for an end to in-custody deaths at the facility.
A group of nearly 100 people stood on Tucker Boulevard and held blue, yellow and white balloons in honor of Hayes, 31, before releasing them.
Everyone shouted, “Forever 31, forever 31!” before letting them go. The balloons floated high in the air, well above the six-story city jail. Candles were lit, tears were shed, and speeches recalling Hayes’ life were shared.
Hayes’ mother, Anita Washington, stood among the crowd holding a lit candle, still grieving the loss of her son, who died in July in jail custody.
“I miss my son dearly,” Washington said. “Since he passed away, nothing can replace his love. I carry him in my heart and mind, treasuring every memory. … I love you, lil Sam.”
She said she’s awaiting the results of his autopsy report and has requested a second probe to determine his official cause of death.
Dozens chanted in unison: “No more murder, no more killing! Ain’t no justice at the Justice Center!”
Tracy Stanton, a campaign strategist at the Freedom Community Center, stood before the group and said that the city’s Detention Facilities Oversight Board has been unable to effectively hold jail leaders accountable due to a lack of access to complaints.
“They were appointed by the (former) mayor four years ago, and they have not been able to do the work that they were supposed to do,” Stanton said. “So it's our responsibility to apply pressure to them and to the jail commissioner and to the mayor and to the public safety to ensure that we get answers.”
She noted that some people detained at the jail have been waiting for a trial for three to five years.
“You hear people saying, ‘Oh, well, they shouldn't have been in there anyway.’ But let me tell you this, you have only been accused of something; you have not been convicted. If you was, then that's God's role and responsibility, not human role and responsibility (to determine if someone dies or not),” Stanton said.
Hayes' funeral was held at the Layne Renaissance Chapel in Jennings in August. His family noted during the ceremony that Hayes was a father and student who had a 4.0 GPA and had attended Rankin Technical College and Forest Park Community College.
He was facing first-degree murder and armed criminal action charges. Hayes died after he was placed in a restraint chair at the jail on July 19 following an altercation with his cellmate, public safety officials said.
Police said the altercation started around 8:20 p.m. that day. He was soon placed in a restraint chair after ignoring commands, police said. Two hours later, police said, Hayes was found unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at 10:40 p.m. at a hospital.
Three people have died at the troubled facility this year after a man died earlier this month, marking at least 21 in-custody deaths since 2020. The Freedom Community Center’s Stanton on Wednesday identified the man who most recently died at the jail, on Nov. 4, as 54-year-old James Earl Johnson.
Two months after Hayes’ death, his mother filed a wrongful-death lawsuit saying that her son did not resist arrest as he was placed in a restraint chair and that he fell to the floor multiple times, based on security camera footage.
The lawsuit was filed against corrections staff, nurses, the city and a corrections-focused health care provider. The suit also claims that Hayes was left convulsing for about 20 minutes and that nurses and other officers failed to follow city restraint chair policies by neglecting to regularly check on him. It also claims the city unlawfully declined to fulfill a Sunshine request that Washington submitted.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is conducting a criminal investigation of Hayes’ death but has not yet released any details of that inquiry.
Court dockets indicate that a motion hearing for the lawsuit is scheduled for Dec. 10 and that a jury trial is set for Jan. 26.
