Mysterious death in troubled Mississippi jail
When a 29-year-old inmate is found dead in jail, what are the odds that foul play was not involved? If the cause of death is unknown, how can foul play be ruled out? And if it wasn’t foul play, what happened?
Hinds County, Mississippi sheriff Tyree Jones announced on March 18, 2023, that Kendravius Eldridge, an inmate at the county’s infamous Raymond Detention Center, had been found unresponsive at 9:10 a.m. the previous day and had died.
Jones said the cause of death was unknown but that foul play was not suspected and that agents with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation are investigating.
According to the detention center’s website, Eldridge had been arrested by Jackson police on March 8, 2024, and charged with possession of a controlled substance, possession of a stolen firearm by a convicted felon and malicious mischief.
One site reported that Eldridge had previously been charged with murder in 2015 in connection with a shooting in Jackson and noted that it was “unclear if he was ever sentenced as neither the Mississippi Department of Corrections nor Hinds Couty[sic] has him currently listed in their inmate records.”
So, another question: Why was Eldridge not listed in inmate records?
Another site reported in 2015 that Eldridge had been charged with allegedly shooting 21-year-old Justin Williams multiple times in a drive-by on Jackson’s Pin Oak Drive, and that the victim’s uncle said the crime was “a result of a domestic issue in which his late-nephew was trying to stand up for his sister.”
Eldridge’s Facebook page says he was originally from Canton, Mississippi and lived in Jackson, where he graduated from Callaway High School in 2013.
More to come.
Notes
Image: Kendravius Eldridge/Hinds County Detention Center