A South Carolina inmate who told his family he was being intentionally starved inside the Chesterfield County Detention Center has now been ruled a homicide victim, nearly two months after jailers found his dehydrated, emaciated body on the floor of a feces-covered cell with the water shut off.
Gary Donald “Bubba” Blair, 43, was found lifeless on the floor of his E Pod cell at the Chesterfield County Detention Center on July 24. The cell was covered in inches-deep feces.
For context, Blair was not serving time for a violent crime. Deputies arrested him on February 22 after he showed up at his sister’s house wearing a Chesterfield County Sheriff’s Office golf shirt, a security badge, handcuffs, and pepper spray. He was charged with impersonating a law enforcement officer.
A judge later found him incompetent to stand trial but restorable with treatment and ordered the South Carolina Office of Mental Health to take him on June 3. The agency never did. Officials cited a nine-month backlog. Blair sat in the county jail for another 51 days and died there. His family says he has suffered from serious mental illness since age 18.
Hellbound and Down 