Macon jail death victim’s family called evidence ‘trash.’ Here’s the case report
Macon Judicial Circuit District Attorney Anita Howard has released an 11-page analysis of the death of Stephen Fossett, detailing why her office declined to pursue charges against Bibb County deputies who hit Fossett with tasers and restrained him before he died.
Fossett died in May 2024 after being tased and restrained in the Bibb County Jail, and his death was ruled a homicide by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. But Howard’s office found Thursday that other factors contributed to his death, including drug use and medical issues, and ruled that charges were not warranted for Cpl. Cynthia Flournoy and Cpl. Curtis Wilson, who tased him during the struggle.
Howard said in the analysis that Flournoy and Wilson tased Fossett for roughly 13 seconds, which didn’t exceed the maximum recommended time of 15 seconds. She also credited officers for restraining Fossett without restricting his breathing, based on her review of evidence.
Howard also reached her decision because Fossett behaved combatively toward the officers and attempted to flee, her report says. He ingested synthetic marijuana, also known as K2 or MDMB-4en PINACA, before the incident, which caused him to be “unresponsive, erratic and combative,” she said.
Howard said despite the autopsy findings that physical restraint and taser use contributed to Fossett’s death, “the actions of these officers do not rise to the level of criminal negligence as they lawfully executed their duties to secure a fleeing and strongly combative inmate.”
Attorneys for Fossett’s family said Thursday that Howard’s office was given bad evidence, calling it “trash.” and there was a lack of transparency from the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office, which didn’t notify Howard of the death in custody. She found out about it through media reports, she said.
In her analysis report, Howard said she reviewed several pieces of evidence:
Surveillance video from J100 Block, the block Fossett was housed in at the Bibb County Jail
Surveillance video from the jail’s infirmary and a hallway behind the infirmary
Body-worn camera video from one of the many deputies involved in the struggle
Video interviews of deputies involved in the struggle
Fossett was in jail after being charged with indecent exposure and criminal trespassing charges earlier in May. His medical intake records indicated he was schizophrenic and “was not compliant with his medication at the time,” according to the report.
What led up to the incident?
The report details the events that happened before and during the struggle. The same day as his death, Fossett was seen drinking an unknown substance from a Styrofoam cup provided to him by an unnamed inmate. He also smoked a handmade cigarette, which was shared among other inmates, that was believed to contain K2.
After smoking the cigarette, “Fossett began stumbling around, waving his arms and using the wall to support himself,” the report said.
He went into the shower, with his body visibly shaking, and slid down the floor where he remained still. Inmates walked past Fossett, with one pulling the curtain to the shower area to obscure his body, the report said.
Flournoy noticed Fossett through a surveillance camera and went to the J100 Block to check on him. She saw Fossett sitting on the floor and kicked his foot to determine if he was conscious, which led him to reposition his body so that he was lying in the shower room, the report said. Flournoy called medical assistance, and nurses responded by bringing a gurney.
The nurses, as well as one inmate, rendered aid to Fossett and attempted to place him on the gurney. Fossett began to resist by “flailing his arms and kicking his legs at the staff members,” the report said. Fossett calmed down, so responders sat him in the gurney and placed traps across his upper and lower body for transport.
Once at the infirmary, a nurse attempted to check Fossett’s vital signs while another attempted to administer Narcan, which the nurse “knew .. had been successful with other patients she had encountered when they were in distress as a result of K2,” the report said. Fossett struggled and dislodged the straps on his lower body. As deputies attempted to gain control over him, Wilson and Flournoy pulled out their tasers.
Wilson had one hand on his taser while trying to secure the straps. He deployed his taser, but it had no effect and Fossett got loose, the report said. So Wilson used it a second time, which again didn’t work. Fossett was fleeing “in the opposite direction, pushing chairs in front of him and into the path of the officers who were in pursuit,” according to the report.
Fossett escaped to the hallway and attempted to open a closed door, then followed a nurse to the locker room “where she struggled to keep a stall door closed as he pushed against it,” the report said. Deputies followed and located Fossett. As he attempted to escape, Flournoy triggered the taser at Fossett. Other deputies, including Wilson, entered the locker room to find Fossett on the floor with his hands by his head.
As officers began to put Fossett in restraints, he “began to yell, kick his legs at the officers and swing his arms with his fists closed towards the officers,” the report said. As Flournoy attempted to tase Fossett again, she hit a lieutenant instead. Wilson was also tased during the incident.
Wilson grabbed Fossett’s right arm and pulled him into the hallway as Flournoy kept discharging their taser. The taser again “appeared to have no effect on him as he continued to kick his legs toward her and Corporal Wilson,” the report said.
The struggle carried on, with Flournoy still using the taser. Officers were attempting to restrain Fossett as he lay with his stomach on the floor while a nurse administered Narcan, the report said. A lieutenant instructed the officers to keep their weight off of Fossett as they handcuffed his legs and hands.
The struggle calmed down when Fossett threw up after being administered Narcan. An officer arrived with a gurney, and they strapped Fossett in. The report noted that Fossett was still breathing at that point.
Fossett was wheeled back to the infirmary for an ambulance to transport him to the hospital. An oxygen tube was put in his nose, as well as a mask placed over his face. While staff talked amongst themselves waiting for the ambulance to arrive, a deputy noticed Fossett was no longer breathing, which led them to try to administer aid until the ambulance arrived. He was pronounced dead once he got to Atrium Health Navicent Medical Center.
Deputies used necessary amount of force, report says
The taser manufacturing company, Axon Enterprises, performed an analysis on the tasers used by Flournoy and Wilson, which revealed that the combined amount of time that the tasers actually made contact with Fossett’s body was less than 13 seconds. The actual taser deployment was 40 seconds across the entire incident, according to the report, which indicates how long the struggle lasted.
Because policy establishes that an individual cannot be tased for more than 15 seconds as per Georgia law, Howard determined that “the amount of force used in this case was within applicable training and policy guidelines,” and “was for the sole purpose of gaining control over a fleeing and actively resistant inmate,” the report said.
The potential for Fossett to be affected by the taser was limited, which was made evident by the way he kept resisting even while being tased, Howard ruled.
She further observed that the deputies involved in the incident “only used the amount of force necessary to do so without compromising Fossett’s health,” the report said, despite the fact that Fossett ultimately died. One of the deputies held him down during the struggle in a way he was able to breathe, the report said.
Howard pointed out that the lieutenant did not want anyone to put their weight on Fossett, but also said that a sergeant’s “choice of words were disrespectful as he commanded Fossett to ‘roll’ on his back,” the report said.
Lastly, the report noted that Flournoy and Wilson had no reports of disciplinary action against them nor other members involved in the struggle. They also completed certified training courses on their tasers, with Wilson being certified in 2021 and in 2022 twice, and Flournoy being certified in 2020, 2022 and 2023, according to the report.
Their training consisted of learning how a person cannot be tased for more than 15 seconds continuously or across an entire incident, and that sensitive areas — such as the face, chest and groin — should be avoided. Officials have not said where the taser struck Fossett on his body.
“This is a heartbreaking situation for the Fossett family and our entire community anytime there is a loss of life,” said Howard after announcing her decision. “I want to be very clear, our decision is only whether or not there would be criminal charges based on the law, based on the actions of the peace officers and so that is the evaluation we made.”
