A second Walker County Jail corrections officer has agreed to plead guilty after being charged in connection with the 2023 death of Anthony “Tony” Mitchell

Karen Kim Elsie Kelly is charged federally with deprivation of rights under the color of law, according to court documents made public Friday. Authorities contend Kelly was aware of the inhumane conditions in which Mitchell was being kept, yet remained largely silent to avoid the ire of the jail command staff and keep her job.

Earlier this month, Joshua “Conner Jones signed plea agreements involving the death of Mitchell and in a 2022 case in which an inmate was beaten in the head and face with a chemical spray can.

Jones was arraigned in a federal courtroom in Birmingham on Thursday.

“My client has accepted full responsibility for her minimal role in this tragic death,’’ said Kelly’s attorney, Brett Bloomston.

“The culture of the Walker County Jail was such that she could do little to help this inmate without fear of reprisal,’’ Bloomston said. “She sincerely hopes that this tragedyleads to new policies and procedures to protect those who are housed in the jail.”

Sheriff Nick Smith said of the latest development, “It puts us another step forward with the investigation and getting to the truth of what really happened..” He declined further comment pending the ongoing investigation.

Mitchell, 33, died Jan. 26, 2023 at Walker Baptist Medical Center, just over two weeks after he was arrested on charges that he shot at Walker County deputies as they responded to a welfare check requested by his family. Subsequent court documents have detail the horrific conditions of his time in the jail and subsequent death.

The county coroner’s death certificate listed Mitchell’s manner of death as homicide and listed the causes as hypothermia and sepsis “resulting from infected injuries obtained during incarceration and medical neglect.”

Lawyers for Mitchell’s mother, Margaret Mitchell, filed a federal lawsuit in March 2023, claiming that jail deputies tased Mitchell and locked him in a freezer, causing his death.

The lawsuit alleges abuse and medical neglect of Mitchell at the hands of Sheriff Nick Smith and staff at the county jail, including corrections officers, nurses and an investigator.

A response to the lawsuit filed by jail nurses disputed Mitchell’s family’s claims that he was locked in a freezer.

Attorneys for the sheriff’s office also said Mitchell was never placed in a freezer, and asked that the allegation be removed from the lawsuit.

“He was not held in a freezer,’’ the document stated. “In fact, the only times that he left the booking area was to attend his 72-hour hearing and to be transported to the hospital.”

Mitchell family attorneys responded by saying the claim was mischaracterized.

They said the claim about the freezer was not definite, but rather a likely possible explanation for Mitchell’s death and that a physician they interviewed for the case told them as much.

Court documents state that the Walker County Jail had eight booking cells that could be directly observed by officers at the booking desk several feet away. Among the eight cells, BK5 was unique in that it was essentially a cement box with a small grate on the floor that opens into a hole for fluids to drain from the cell, documents state.

BK5 was often referred to as the drunk tank in that it could easily be hosed down when inebriated people held there would vomit, documents state.

BK5 was unlike all other cells in the jail, but for observation cell AH3, which had no hole in the floor and was used only for detainees for hours at a time. It did not have a sink, toilet, access to any running water or a raised platform to be used as a bed.

The cell was notoriously cold during winter months and the temperature on the bare cement floor was even colder,’’ the plea agreement states.

Medical and mental health services were provided by an outside contractor hired by Walker County. As part of the booking process, all detainees were supposed to receive a medical and mental health screening to ensure that emergent and urgent health needs were met.

During Mitchell’s detention, Kelly worked the night shifts at the jail on Jan. 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, and January 22nd, 23rd, and 24th as a correctional officer, including acting as shift supervisor at times.

Mitchell was housed in booking cell BK5. For most of that time, he was housed naked, without a mat or blanket, left to lie on the cold, bare, cement floor, charging documents state.

Despite that cell being referred to as the drunk tank, Kelly was under the impression that Mitchell was housed in BK5 upon orders of the jail’s command staff because he was on suicide watch.

She believed he was on suicide watch because she had been told by the dayshift lieutenant, who was on duty when Mitchell was initially booked into the jail.

Additionally, the plea agreement states, Kelly was told by the night shift lieutenant who directly supervised her that the nurse practitioner claimed Mitchell was on suicide watch.

“Nonetheless, defendant Kelly never saw any documentation reflecting that (Mitchell) was on suicide watch, he was not treated as other suicide watch inmates were treated, he was kept in BK5 much longer than any other ‘suicide watch’ inmates would be kept there, and he never demonstrated signs of self-harm or suicidal ideation,’’ documents said.

Kelly was told by another lieutenant that the nurse practitioner ceded her authority to determine who should be on or off suicide watch to the command staff which was against jail protocol as she understood it.

Kelly never saw Jail staff take any actions directed at protecting Mitchell from self-harm, such as providing him mental health treatment.

Court documents state Kelly did not believe that Mitchell’s basic human needs were being met. In addition to the cold, bare conditions Mitchell experienced for a prolonged period, he and his cell were often filthy with feces and old food and garbage that had not been collected by officers.

On one occasion, after arranging for the cell to be cleaned for the first time in days, one of the lieutenants berated Kelly upon discovering that the cell had been cleaned indicating to her that he intended the cell to remain filthy and filled with garbage.

Kelly had been told by a lieutenant that Mitchell was combative, suggesting justification for keeping him in the conditions under which he was housed.

“However, over the course of her seven shifts in which Mitchell was housed there, she never observed him behave in a combative behavior,’’ the documents state. “To the contrary, she witnessed Mitchell rarely doing anything but sitting or lying in his cell.”

Over time, Mitchell became obviously weaker physically, appearing frail as days wore on.

Kelly, the documents state, was familiar with countless inmates at the Jail over time who were far more threatening, combative, or aggressive, and who routinely were housed in general population dorms or dorms where inmates had access to toilets, showers, commissary, phone calls, and running water.

The plea agreement states that Mitchell was barely communicative, appeared not to be lucid much of the time, and appeared to be suffering from significant mental illness even to those without medical or mental health training.

Kelly, documents show, believed Mitchell wasn’t capable of effectively describing his needs or discomfort that ordinarily would have been associated with conditions of confinement in which he was maintained.

Kelly twice asked a lieutenant whether steps could be taken to give Mitchell a mat or a blanket and each time she was told that a member of the command staff insisted that Mitchell remain under those conditions.

“Even in those rare instances that (Mitchell) was provided with a shower, she was not permitted to provide a towel or other fabric for (Mitchell) to dry off before he returned nude to BK5 and its cold temperatures,’’ which Kelly described as inhuman.

The plea agreement states that Kelly believed the jail command staff was purposely keeping Mitchell in inhumane conditions that posed serious threats to his health and well-being.

“Nonetheless, despite the inferences she drew in the face of the objectively obvious harmful conditions, Kelly did not express her concerns to anyone other than her immediate supervisor even after they were ignored,’’ the document states.

“The culture in the jail was such that Kelly feared retaliation if she raised further questions about the treatment of (Mitchell),’’ the document reads. “As such, Kelly did not take reasonable steps to alert appropriate authorities.”

“Instead,’’ the document continued, “she sought to avoid scrutiny from jail supervisors to remain employed there by failing to raise alarms about (Mitchell’s) deterioration and exposure to inhumane conditions.”

A court date has not yet been announced.