In the days before Javarick Gantt was strangled to death in jail, he was forced to share a cell with a first-degree murder suspect whose violent behavior had already alarmed his previous cellmate, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
Gantt, who used sign language because he was deaf, struggled to communicate with corrections officers and other detainees, making him especially vulnerable to violence, his family alleges. Their lawsuit sheds new light on the circumstances surrounding the 2022 jailhouse killing, which raised significant concerns about operations in the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center.
