Alabama inmate dies after kidnapping, beating, rape, family says

The family of an Alabama inmate says the man was beaten and sexually assaulted to the point that he died from his injuries.

Daniel Williams’ family said warden Joseph Headley at Staton Correctional Facility in Elmore, Alabama, initially said the inmate was brain dead due to a drug overdose last month.

But when father Terry Williams and stepmother Taylor Bostic went to see the 22-year-old at the hospital, the family said the young man had visible wounds all over his body. 

“He was black and blue from head to toe. He had restraint marks on his wrists. He had indents, almost, in his head from being beaten,” Ms. Bostic told Fox News Digital. “So, my husband, Terry, called the warden and said, ’Why the hell … did you tell me my son died of an overdose when it was obviously an assault?’ And the warden said it’s under investigation, and that’s all we’ve heard from them since.”

The Alabama Department of Corrections confirmed that Williams was the victim of a “possible inmate-on-inmate assault” that left him “unresponsive” shortly before he was hospitalized.

Ms. Bostic told the Alabama Political Reporter that she and her husband were informed that Williams was kidnapped and raped or “tied up, beaten and rented out for two to three days” by another prisoner.

Williams was taken off life support on Nov. 5 and died four days later — the same day he was set to complete his one-year sentence for assault and theft charges.

Terry Williams and Ms. Bostic hired a lawyer to look into possibly suing the state’s prison system. The U.S. Justice Department is already suing Alabama for failing to prevent violence between inmates and guard-on-inmate violence.

Williams leaves behind a girlfriend and two children.