Nearly three years after Tony Mitchell died inside the Walker County Jail, ABC 33/40 investigative reporter Cynthia Gould says his family is still asking a simple, haunting question: how did a call for help end with a 33-year-old man freezing to death in government custody?
In Gould’s exclusive video report, she explains that federal court filings describe Mitchell’s final days as “horrible, inhumane conditions” – and his cousin now openly calls what happened “torture” and “murder.”
A Welfare Check That Turned Into A Death Sentence
Gould reports that this story began with a 911 call for a welfare check in January 2023. Tony’s first cousin, Steve Mitchell, tells her he called for help after Tony showed up at his house in a state he barely recognized.
Steve recalls a slumped figure with stringy hair sitting in the car. His own son had to tell him, “Dad, that’s Tony.” Steve says he immediately realized something was very wrong and told his son, “He snapped.”
According to Steve’s interview with Gould, Tony was talking about portals to heaven and hell and about a brother who had died at birth. Tony insisted he had to “put this baby in a portal,” a clear sign, in Steve’s view, that he was in a serious mental health crisis, not a criminal rampage.
Gould notes that when Tony later went back to the house, deputies say he fired a gun in their direction, and a photo of him was posted on the sheriff’s department’s social media.
Even then, Steve says the family believed they were sending Tony somewhere safe, where professionals would finally step in and help.
Promises Of Care, Reality Of A Freezing Concrete Cell
In her report, Gould says the family was reassured by the sheriff’s office that Tony would be seen by a doctor every day, and that he would receive medical and mental health care inside Walker County Jail.
Steve Mitchell tells her they were relieved. Tony’s mother, he says, felt they had finally done something right for her son. “She was like, he can get some help,” Steve recalls.
But according to federal court documents cited by Gould, that care never came.
Instead, filings state that Tony was kept in a cold cell with no toilet and no water, often nude, without a blanket or even a mat. Gould reports that he was left covered in his own feces, with no meaningful medical or mental health evaluation during the two weeks he spent inside the jail.
Steve says what shocks him most is how many people saw it and did nothing. He tells Gould that “at least 20 people” – medical staff, correctional officers, mental health workers — walked past Tony’s cell.
“To me, that’s an atrocity,” Steve says. “You can torture an inmate like that and so many people knew it.” He adds that from what he’s seen, some appeared to be laughing, and that surveillance footage shows Tony being tased and dragged across the floor.
In his words, repeated by Gould, “You don’t treat animals that way.”
“This Was Torture. Was This Murder?”
Gould asks Steve directly whether he believes Tony was murdered.
“In my opinion? Absolutely,” Steve replies. “It wasn’t just murder. It was calculated. They knew what they were doing.”
He describes what happened as a “failure of humanity”, telling Gould, “Humanity failed him. You can cut it any way you want, but torture is torture.”
That kind of language is unusually blunt for a grieving relative on camera, and it shows how deep the anger runs. From Steve’s perspective, this was not just neglect; it was a deliberate decision by multiple people to ignore a clearly suffering man until his body could no longer survive.
Even if some of the staff never laid a hand on Tony, Steve’s comments – as reported by Gould – highlight something bigger: doing nothing can be its own form of cruelty when you have a legal duty to act.
A Body Temperature Of 72 Degrees
Gould’s investigation draws heavily on medical records and federal filings that paint a deeply disturbing picture of Tony’s final hours.
After two weeks in custody, Mitchell was finally taken from the jail to a hospital — not by ambulance, but loaded into a patrol car, according to Gould’s report. Surveillance video, which she references, shows him looking lifeless as he’s moved.
In the emergency room, Gould says doctors documented Tony as “unresponsive,” “pulseless,” and “cold to the touch.” His internal body temperature was recorded at 72 degrees, a level consistent with severe hypothermia, far below what a living person should be.
The official cause of death, according to court filings cited in Gould’s story, was hypothermia and sepsis due to medical neglect.
That combination – hypothermia and sepsis – suggests not just exposure to extreme cold but also infection and systemic failure inside his body. When you put those details next to the descriptions of a freezing cell, no toilet, no water, no blanket, and no meaningful medical care, it becomes difficult to see this as anything other than a preventable death.
Conflicting Stories And A Wall Of Silence
In her report, Gould explains that the family was originally told Tony had been combative in jail, throwing feces and refusing medical treatment. Federal court documents, she notes, directly refute those claims.
Steve Mitchell also accuses former sheriff’s office spokesperson T.J. Armstrong of misleading the family about Tony’s final moments. Steve tells Gould that Armstrong said Tony was alive and sitting up in a hospital bed, and that he suddenly had a massive heart attack and died.
When Tony’s mother arrived at the hospital, Steve says, the reality was completely different. She touched her son and found him “very, very cold, nonresponsive and cold,” and she was “astonished at what he looked like.”
“It’s hard to believe that your loved one is in that shape, and you sent them there to get them help,” Steve tells Gould.
Gould reports that Armstrong is no longer with the sheriff’s office and has declined to comment.
She also notes that Walker County Sheriff Nick Smith and the Walker County Commission have repeatedly declined to speak publicly about the case throughout the nearly three-year federal investigation.
That ongoing silence, against the backdrop of so many details now in court filings, understandably feeds the family’s sense that they were kept in the dark from day one.
Criminal Charges, Civil Settlements, And Unanswered Questions
Gould reports that the U.S. Attorney’s Office has charged 24 jailers and medical staff in connection with Tony’s death. Some have already pleaded guilty or been indicted, and federal documents mention additional “co-conspirators,” suggesting that prosecutors believe more people may be responsible.
According to Gould’s report, the Mitchell family has settled its civil lawsuits, but the criminal cases are still dragging on, nearly three years after Tony’s death.
Steve tells her that he still believes in the justice system, even with the delays. He says he thinks others will eventually be charged and emphasizes that there are “good people at the sheriff’s office” who are now trying to “weed out the bad ones.”
That comment is important. It signals that the family’s fight is not just about punishment — it’s also about forcing a system to confront what it allowed to happen and to make sure no one else is left to die the way Tony was.
From a broader perspective, the number of people charged and the horrific details described in federal filings raise hard questions about jail oversight, mental health care, and basic human rights inside local facilities.
If it took leaked video, federal investigators, and national media coverage to get to this point in Tony Mitchell’s case, how many other inmates suffer in silence without anyone ever knowing their names?
“This Could Have Been Your Child”
In the most emotional part of Gould’s report, Steve Mitchell steps away from legal language and statistics and speaks directly to the public.
He describes Tony as a “gentle giant,” charismatic, someone who “loved life” and “enjoyed people.” Everyone who knew him, Steve says, would have loved Tony.
Then he looks at the camera and asks viewers to imagine it was their own family. “Just think about one thing,” he says. “This could have been your child.”
That line, highlighted by Gould, cuts through courtroom filings and legal arguments. It forces people to see Tony Mitchell not as a mugshot or a case number, but as a human being whose life spiraled after his father’s death and who needed serious mental health care, not a freezing isolation cell.
Cases like this often get framed as “jail scandals” or “system failures,” but Steve’s words – and Gould’s reporting – point to something even more basic: whether we are willing to accept torture and death as a possible outcome of calling 911 for help.
Until that question is answered, Tony Mitchell’s story will continue to echo far beyond Walker County.
Raised in a small Arizona town, Kevin grew up surrounded by rugged desert landscapes and a family of hunters. His background in competitive shooting and firearms training has made him an authority on self-defense and gun safety. A certified firearms instructor, Kevin teaches others how to properly handle and maintain their weapons, whether for hunting, home defense, or survival situations. His writing focuses on responsible gun ownership, marksmanship, and the role of firearms in personal preparedness.
