Former Alabama Department of Corrections employee Melvin Ledarrius Thomas, 35, has been criminally charged in connection with the stabbing death of a man in his custody in September 2025.
A two-count indictment returned on December 5, 2025, charges Mr. Thomas with reckless manslaughter (and failing to perform a legal duty concerning a person in custody) in the death of Antwion Webb, a 45-year-old man who was killed while he was incarcerated at Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, Alabama.
For years, many advocates and people who are incarcerated have contended that a great deal of prison violence in Alabama between incarcerated people is the result of negligence or mismanagement by correctional staff. Allegations have even been made that officers sometimes conspire with incarcerated people to facilitate violence against other prisoners, resulting in homicides, sexual assaults, and serious injuries. Holding correctional staff accountable for conduct that they know will expose a person in custody to violence has been a consistent priority for people seeking reform of Alabama’s prisons.
Mr. Webb was stabbed in the chest by another incarcerated man late at night on Friday, September 12, 2025, according to al.com. The coroner’s report said he had suffered a sharp-force injury during an assault. He was pronounced dead at 4:36 am the following day.
The indictment alleges that Mr. Thomas, while employed as a prison guard at Donaldson, recklessly caused the death of Mr. Webb by recklessly returning him to general population after knowing he had suffered a stab wound and/or refused to provide medical care to Mr. Webb under his duty as a correctional officer, therefore causing and/or contributing to the victim’s death.
Mr. Thomas’s employment with ADOC ended on September 20, 2025, one week after Mr. Webb died, al.com reports. He was booked at the Jefferson County Jail on August 26 and released the same day on $20,000 bond, according to al.com.
His arraignment is scheduled for October 26, 2026.
Alabama has one of the highest prison homicide rates in the country. EJI has documented that more than 100 people have been killed in Alabama’s prisons since the Justice Department notified ADOC in April 2019 that its prisons were unconstitutionally violent.