What Happened to Ta'Neasha Chappell is Another White Supremacy Mystery: Black Woman Arrested for Shoplifting Died in Custody. Secretive IN Jail Orderlies Can't Explain Why She Had Bruises on Her Face

From [HERE] and [HERE] Ta'Neasha Chappell died shortly after being transported from an Indiana jail to a nearby hospital on last Friday.

The 23-year-old, from Louisville, Kentucky, was an inmate at the Jackson County Jail after being arrested on shoplifting charges on May 26.

On Friday July 16, she was taken by ambulance to Schneck Memorial Hospital in Seymour, where she died later that day, the Indiana State Police said in a news release on Sunday.

The Indiana jail where Louisville woman Ta'Neasha Chappell was held before her death had conditions tantamount to unconstitutional "cruel and unusual punishment," an attorney for the family alleged during a news conference Thursday evening.

"It was so bad that Ta'Neasha called and her family and let them know, 'Please get me out of here. If I can't get out, I'm going to die here,'" local attorney Lonita Baker said. "Unfortunately, her greatest fear happened.

"She went in a young, 23-year-old mother, healthy, and she should have returned to her family that same way."

Chappell was being held in the Jackson County Jail in Brownstown, Indiana, 50 miles north of Louisville, on charges stemming from an alleged May 26 theft and high-speed chase. She was one of the few Black women in the jail population, Baker said.

On July 16, she was taken to Schneck Memorial Hospital in nearby Seymour, where  she died, according to Indiana State Police, which is investigating the death.

Besides Baker, Chappell's family has hired prominent lawyers Sam Aguiar and Florida-based Ben Crump to help get answers about what happened to her. The trio previously secured a $12 million settlement last year from the city of Louisville for the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor in March 2020.

Only Baker was at the press conference.

She said Chappell, who had a 10-year-old daughter, began to get sick on July 15, when she started vomiting and spiked a fever that was severe enough for jail staff to check her temperature every 15 minutes. But EMS was not called until nearly 24 hours later when staff found Chappell unresponsive, the lawyer said.

Jail staff told Chappell's family they believe her death was "something chemical," but the family has been told little else, Baker said.

"But that doesn't explain the bruises on her face," Baker said. "It doesn't explain the frantic calls to her family."

The Jackson County Sheriff's Office, which runs the jail, has previously declined to comment on the case. The sheriff's office did not immediately return a phone call left on a voicemail on Friday. A woman who answered the phone at the office on Wednesday morning said all questions were being directed to the Indiana State Police.  

The state police confirmed an autopsy has been performed and declined Tuesday to offer any additional information, saying the results will take "several days or longer."

Chappell did not have any preexisting conditions, according to her sister, Ronesha Murrell.

Baker said she does not have any indication as to Chappell's cause of death, but there will be an independent medical exam conducted.

Murrell said her sister was jumped inside the jail and had been cut on her neck, but she wasn't separated from others after that incident.

In a Facebook post shared shortly before the press conference, Aguiar alleged numerous serious issues at the Jackson County Jail. Many of the claims involve a lack of hygiene and medical care, including that those in the jail have been "forced to live in sewage multiple times. Black mold too."

The post says the jail doesn't have "any medical personnel available most of the time."

"Deprived of basic medical needs. Guards telling them they’re faking or making them wait over a week to even see a nurse," it reads. "See a nurse who doesn’t give them their medications that are critical for health. And when inmates say something, nurse locks them down."

Aguiar also alleged the jail has mishandled the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

"This jail has 240 inmates coming and going. But claims to have had zero inmates with COVID. Ever. Only staff," the Facebook post reads. "Well that’s what happens when you ignore people who can’t breath(e), have uncontrollable fevers and are neglected. Oh, and Jackson County, as of late last year, had the highest COVID positivity rate in all of Indiana.

"Zero inmates with COVID though at all since the pandemic started? That’s deliberate indifference."

Other allegations listed in the post included prisoners being "deprived of showers" and "constantly attacked with guards doing nearly nothing." It said people are "constantly called the N word if one of the few Black female inmates" and "have to deal with guards who are constantly showing favoritism to certain female inmates who will flirt back with them."

Aguiar said those who complain "have many of their grievances crumbled and thrown in trash by guards." He also alleged people held in the jail are "deprived of food and water if they try to speak out about the inhumane conditions."

"Ta’Neasha didn’t have a chance," the post concludes. "Release the video. Explain why she was left in her cell for 24 hours while vomiting and fighting a spiking fever. Explain the facial injuries. What happened to Ta’Neasha Chappell?"