Three jail inmates in New Jersey were convicted in the brutal beating almost two years ago that left a fellow inmate with permanent brain damage.
A jury found Byad Lockett and Darryl Watson guilty in the Sept. 2021 Essex County jail attack against then 21-year-old Jayshawn Boyd, prosecutors announced Wednesday. The jury found Lockett and Watson guilty of attempted murder, aggravated assault and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.
The third inmate, Isaad Jackson, was only found guilty of the final charge. Prosecutors said the jury was hung on the attempted murder and assault charges.
The vicious beatdown was caught on video, many of the images too disturbing too watch. In it, the three men stomp on Boyd, hit him with a mop handle, douse him with bleach, throw a water cooler and then a microwave at his head. According to Essex County officials, a total of seven inmates were involved in the attack.
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“The victim was unconscious after sustaining serious head shots during the seven-on-one assault. Lockett, Watson, and Jackson then returned to the defenseless body of Boyd and struck him in the head multiple times with industrial-sized items," Deputy Chief Assistant Prosecutor Justin Edwab said.
The sentencing for the three men is set for September.
That Boyd can walk at all shows his incredible will to survive -- no one thought he could live after the beating in the C-Pod at the Essex County jail. Boyd, whose family says suffers from schizophrenia, had never been put in general population before the day of the beating.
"The way they beat my son, I couldn’t even watch the video," Nacolia Boyd, Jayshawn's mother, said. "My son Is not the same. He can’t do things on his own anymore. He can’t go to the store—can’t dress himself-it’s hard for me. You don’t have the life you did before.”
The Boyd family is now suing the county and correction officials. Attorney Brooke Barnett says the duration of the beating with no intervention by jail guards was unacceptable.
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”He’s placed in the jail—in less than 10 minutes, this is what’s happening," Barnett said. "And nobody came to his aid.”
The seven-on-one attack went on for two minutes and 23 seconds, according to Barnett.
Union officials said the sole officer on duty in that unit had not been academy trained. According to prosecutors, he left for his safety and called for backup. A year and a half later, officers without academy training are still being put into units at a ratio of one to every 64 inmates.
County officials insist they have implemented safety and security changes since the assault on Boyd.
“We are employing national standards and we are employing best practices," ECCR Director Donald Charles said.
But according to internal documents obtained by the News 4 I-Team, there have been a total of 17 inmate-on-inmate or inmate-on-staff incidents since March. Officer Jeffrey Matos was stabbed and beaten by a group of inmates on May 17.
"They don't care about our safety. I've never seen the jail this dangerous in my life," Matos said.
Barnett, who represents several inmate families, agrees.
"You talk about Rikers, Essex County Jail, they're worse than Rikers," she said.
Boyd, his family says, will need a lifetime of care.
"They should have been on a job protecting these inmates. Just because you’re in jail, doesn’t mean you have to be treated like an animal. And it shouldn’t have happened to my son. No one should have gone through that," his mother said.
One defendant has already pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, while three others have yet to be tried.
