Inmate pleads guilty to murdering Deaf cellmate Javarick Gantt
Two years ago, I shared a report from Baltimore that a 34-year-old Deaf man named Javarick Gantt, who was incarcerated in a Baltimore jail, was murdered by his cellmate.
AP News said Gantt’s cellmate at the time, Gordon Staron (hearing), was charged with first-degree murder and pleaded guilty on Tuesday.
AP said jail officials have refused to answer questions about why Staron, who was already a murder suspect in an unrelated case at the time, was placed in the same cell as Gantt, who was Deaf and used sign language and was facing relatively minor charges.
In the report from two years ago, Gantt’s mother said that his son was strangled to death. Court documents said according to witnesses in jail, Gantt made noises and banged on his cell door during the night before he was found dead. The cell door had been locked for almost 12 hours. Prosecutors did not share what Staron’s motive was.
AP News said Staron was at the Baltimore jail with Gantt after he killed a 63-year-old man using an ax at a bus stop. Staron was recently convicted in that case. He will be sentenced on December 19 both for the ax murder and for killing Gantt. Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates said he would seek life without parole for Staron.
Gantt was in jail on old charges from 2019 that included allegations of assault and groping. He was being held without bail after missing court dates and meetings with his probation officers. His case was backlogged in Baltimore’s court system so he languished there until he was murdered. He was only 5 feet tall and weighed around 105 pounds.
So, it is very tragic that Gantt was in a very dangerous place while he could have been outside had he met with his probation officer and showed up for his court dates. I do not know the exact circumstances of Gantt’s case, but deaf people in the justice/prison system often do not get all the accommodations they need to understand the conditions of their bail or probation.
https://apnews.com/article/baltimore-crime-homicide-0664806efca0e0f44d71fc45ef95ab6f
Previous report: https://www.dailymoth.com/blog/deaf-man-murdered-in-baltimore-jail-javarick-gantt