Tony Mitchell’s loved ones suspected he went through hell during the two weeks he spent in the Walker County Jail before his death, but seeing the admission of one of the jailers in federal court records was more than they even imagined.

“We always suspected this but it’s shocking to actually see what they’re saying,’’ said Birmingham attorney Jon C. Goldfarb, who represents Mitchell’s family in a civil lawsuit over his death.

“They’re sad to see it. They’re shocked is what they are,’’ Goldfarb said. “They suspected it but to see an admission like that is shocking.”

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.

On the day he was arrested, Mitchell covered himself in black spray paint and claimed to have a “portal to hell.”

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.”

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.

Former Walker County Jail corrections officer Joshua Conner Jones agreed to plead guilty after being charged in connection with Mitchell’s death. Jones this week signed an agreement to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter involving reckless conduct in Mitchell’s death, and faces up to life in prison.

Jones’ 18-page plea agreement made public this week revealed weeks of inhumane treatment that Mitchell endured and said Jones admitted that “collectively we did it. We killed him.”

Jones, who also agreed to plead guilty to an unrelated 2022 case in which another inmate was assaulted at his hands, will be arraignment on Aug. 15. A federal judge will set a date to accept Jones’ plea.

The plea agreement also mentioned five co-conspirators in the Mitchell case. They were not identified in court documents and have not been charged, though more arrests are expected in the case.

“Jones has taken responsibility for his part in Mr. Mitchell’s death,” Jones’ defense attorney, W. Scott Brower, told McClatchy News.

“I expect this is the tip of the iceberg and in the coming weeks you will see multiple other individuals charged for the death of Mr. Mitchell as a result of the actions or inaction of employees of the Walker County Sheriff’s office,” Brower added.

“While the news of charges against a former corrections officer is a step towards the resolution of this case, it is still an ongoing investigation and maintaining the integrity of that investigation is still of the utmost importance for all parties involved,’’ Walker County Sheriff Nick Smith said Friday.

“For that reason, I will decline to comment further until the investigation is concluded.”

It was initially claimed Mitchell was placed in a freezer at the jail. The plea agreement, however, states Mitchell was put in a “notoriously cold” cell with no sink, toilet, or running water.

When Mitchell was booked, he could not walk, was disoriented, non-combative and could not follow directions. Officers “wrapped a suicide smock around him.”

Jones said Mitchell never received any medical evaluation until the morning of his death, two weeks later.

Corrections officers repeatedly chose not help him and would dismiss his needs by saying, “(Expletive) him, he gets what he gets since he shot at cops, or words to that effect,’’ the document states.

“Jones (and the other jailers) spoke directly to (Mitchell) saying that he was now in their ‘house’ and that he had to deal with them,’’ records show.

On Jan. 26, 2023, one of the unnamed officers told Jones that a nurse had ordered that Mitchell be taken to a hospital or he might die.

One of the co-conspirators replied, “I’ll tell you what, next time you’re on the toilet taking a (expletive), I’ll call you to bother you with something unimportant.”

The officers also repeatedly made comments that Mitchell “should have been killed because he shot at deputies rather than being brough to the jail,’’ the document says.

Jones said he watched Mitchell deteriorate over the two weeks after his Jan. 12, 2023, arrest.

“At the time he passed, (Mitchell) was almost always naked, wet, cold, and covered in feces while lying on the cement floor without a mat or blanket,’’ the records state.

By the second week of being jailed, Mitchell was largely listless and mostly unresponsive to questions.

The agreement states Jones and the co-conspirators denied Mitchell medical care by falsely telling medical staff that Mitchell was too combative to be evaluated “when in truth that was not the case.”

The efforts to deny Mitchell medical and mental health care persisted even though he was frequently talking incoherently about “demons.”

“Calling (Mitchell) combative was an excuse to mistreat him,’’ documents state. “There was no conduct that could have been committed by (Mitchell) that would have justified the denial of medical access.”

After Mitchell’s death, jail video was leaked.

Goldfarb said Jones’ plea agreement shed more light on the video.

“You see them talking on the video, but you don’t know what they’re saying,’’ Goldfarb said. “This shed some light on the holes we had in the case.”

“In the video, you see them yelling at him and it’s clear they’re not being nice, but you don’t know what they’re saying,’’ he said. “Now we’re getting some understanding of the horrible stuff they were saying to him.”

“They’re clearly being abusive to him,’’ he said. “They killed him.”

Goldfarb talked about the statement in court documents where one of the unidentified co-conspirators made the statement, “I’ll tell you what, next time you’re on the toilet taking a (expletive), I’ll call you to bother you with something unimportant.”

“Tony at that point was in dire medical distress,’’ Goldfarb said. “I don’t think you can ever get anything more important than that, and their dismissal of it shows just how callous they were toward his life.”

Goldfarb said the civil case will be on hold while the criminal case plays out.

He said he expects multiple more charges.

“We want for anybody to be held accountable that had anything to do with this,’’ he said, “and for them to know that Tony’s life was important.”