An Alabama man's family is alleging that he was sexually assaulted and beaten, leaving him in a coma, at Staton Correctional Facility in Elmore, Alabama, just two weeks before he was set to be released.
Daniel Terry Williams, 22, was serving a one-year sentence for assault and theft charges as part of a plea agreement, and he was set to be released on Nov. 9 — the same day he died, according to Jefferson County court records and his family. He had only been at Staton for about two weeks following a transfer to the Elmore, Alabama, correctional facility, when he was allegedly beaten and sexually assaulted.
"Somebody's got to pay for it, and I'm not backing down. It's my son," Terry Williams, Daniel Williams' father, told Fox News Digital. "I'll go to my grave with this if I have to."
Taylor Bostic, Daniel's stepmother and Terry Williams' wife, said a doctor apparently told their family that Daniel was "in a coma long before he ever got medical attention."
"Of course, we're sad, but we're angry. We're angry that… they allowed this to happen. He was beaten for almost two days," she said. "He was left unresponsive for half of a day before he was found. How?"
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Williams' girlfriend initially received a phone call from a warden at Staton in October saying he had been hospitalized due to a drug overdose. His girlfriend then contacted Williams' parents to let them know.
"Then, I called the warden myself to find out what was going on and why we hadn't been contacted. And he said both of [Williams'] parents had been marked ‘N/A’ on the contact slip, which is, excuse me, but a crock of crap," Bostic said of her Oct. 25 phone call with the prison's warden. "But, when I called, he told me Daniel's on life support but the only time we call the family is when it looks like they're not going to make it."
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The warden also allegedly told Bostic that Williams had been hospitalized due to a drug overdose on Oct. 22, she said.
Bostic said she and Terry initially thought their son had "gotten into something bad" at the prison after Bostic's call with the warden, but when they arrived at the hospital where the 22-year-old was receiving treatment, they were shocked at what they discovered.
"He was black and blue from head to toe. He had restraint marks on his wrists. He had indents, almost, in his head from being beaten," Bostic recalled. "So, my husband, Terry, called the warden and said, 'Why the hell…did you tell me my son died of an overdose when it was obviously an assault?' And the warden said it's under investigation, and that's all we've heard from them since."
Terry alleged that Daniel had been "tied up" and beaten on Oct. 19, three days before another inmate took him to an officer for help on Oct. 22, citing what he has heard from other inmates at the facility.
The Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) told Fox News Digital in a statement that "a possible inmate-on-inmate assault was reported at Staton Correctional Facility" on Oct. 22.
"Inmate Williams was discovered unresponsive in his dorm and was transported to the Health Care Unit," ADOC said. "Medical personnel treated Williams and monitored his condition. The decision was made to transfer him to an area hospital for further evaluation and treatment. He remained at the hospital until the family decided to remove him from life support. He was transported to Kilby Correctional Facility for long-term comfort care where he subsequently died."
Williams was "was found unresponsive in the Health Care Unit" on Oct. 9, and medical staff were "unable to resuscitate him" despite their attempts to keep him alive.
The ADOC Law Enforcement Services Division is investigating the incident.
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The Justice Department sued Alabama over the condition of its prisons in 2020 after a federal investigation revealed that "Alabama violated and is continuing to violate the Constitution because its prisons are riddled with prisoner-on-prisoner and guard-on-prisoner violence."
Bostic described her stepson as a "busybody" who "never stopped."
"That boy moved in his sleep. He was always finding something to do, whether it was tearing something apart or fixing something," she said. "He was raising his daughter, which he loved. He was a really good dad."
Williams daughter is a year old, and he also had a young son. A GoFundMe made in Daniel Terry Williams' full name aims to raise money for his funeral expenses.
The 22-year-old's mother, Tammy Williams, announced his death in a Nov. 9 Facebook post after she and Williams' father decided to take him off life support, saying they "will keep fighting for justice."
