A jury has convicted a former deputy jailer in eastern Kentucky for his role in violently assaulting a pre-trial detainee and willfully failing to provide necessary medical attention that led to his death. On Thursday, May 12, William Curtis Howell, 60, was convicted of using excessive force against the detainee, resulting in bodily injury, and of deliberately ignoring the detainee’s serious medical needs, also resulting in bodily injury. The jury returned the verdict after 90 minutes of deliberation, following four days of trial.

According to the evidence presented at trial, on July 9, 2017, at the Kentucky River Regional Jail in Hazard, Howell and another supervisory deputy jailer, Damon Wayne Hickman, violently beat Larry Trent, 54, a pretrial detainee, and left him in his cell, seriously injured and bleeding from an open head wound. Hickman and Howell allegedly beat Trent after he ran from his cell while they were removing a sleeping-mat. Hours following the beating, another employee noticed Trent’s lifeless body and called emergency personnel. Sentencing for Howell is scheduled for August 16, 2017 in London, KY.