The family of a veteran who died in the Dekalb County jail in March is calling for the termination of the deputies involved after his death.
Christon Collins was just 27 years old when he died in jail on March 15. His family says he struggled with PTSD after getting out of the military on March 15, 2018, and didn’t get the care he needed. Collins had been in custody at the DeKalb County Jail since February 4 on charges of obstruction of law enforcement and simple battery against police.
Tuesday afternoon, his mother, family, Justice 4 Veterans and attorney Ben Crump addressed Collin’s case and the need to get accountability for not just Collins but other veterans and Black men struggling with mental health and PTSD.
“It seems like what they did was criminal, and the cover up is worse than the crime itself,” Crump said. “They were maleficent. He had been in jail for over 6 weeks, and they said on the medical examiner’s report that he had drugs in his system. So, you’re admitting that you let drugs in your jail? You can’t have it both ways. The nurses told this broken-hearted mother he had no drugs in his system, so how did they appear on the report?”
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Video from the jail cell where Christon was housed shows Christon in distress on March 15, 2024, and no deputies responded. 11Alive’s Angelina Salcedo watched the two different angles of the released video. In the four hours, no deputies responded.
At 4:10 p.m., Collins comes out of his cell. 20 minutes later, he falls by the phone on the wall and hits his head. Several inmates check him, and they bring him into cell 206 a minute later. 10 minutes after that, inmates bring him outside into the dayroom, and Collins is left lying on the ground for over two hours without deputies coming to check on him.
“I need to know what happened to my son. I don’t want answers because I’ve gotten answers. I want the truth, and I want action. When he left the jail, he was dead,” Jonia Milburn said when talking about the fight for her son.
The video was hard for her to watch. When 11Alive asked Milburn what she would tell Christon now after taking the step to get legal counsel, she got emotional and started crying.
“I want him to know that I love him. I know he was fighting, and he wanted to live. I want him to know that I’m sorry no one was there to help him when he needed it,” Milburn said.
Milburn says the neglect of detention deputies and the system caused her son’s death. Crump argues she would’ve never seen what happened to Collins if she hadn’t pushed for answers and trusted the medical examiner’s report done by Dekalb County. Milburn knows had he gotten the help and medication he needed when she and his doctors suggested, Christon would’ve still been alive.
“If she would’ve trusted the documentation, his death would’ve been in vain. Getting justice isn’t just for this family. Getting justice is for the veteran community and people in the community that struggle every day with mental health issues. We don’t want them to be treated different just because they’re sick,” Crump said.
The attorneys' focus moving forward is to thoroughly investigate what happened to hold Collins and his family accountable. They’re also considering pursuing legal action down the line. The Dekalb Sheriff has yet to respond to their call for the termination of the deputies involved.
DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston continued investigating the circumstances surrounding his death and released the full statement below:
"We are very concerned about the circumstances surrounding the death of Christon Collins in the DeKalb County Jail. Our office was previously advised that Mr. Collins died as the result of a medical emergency. New information has come to light that we believe warrants further examination. We will be asking the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office to forward all related information to us so that we can fully investigate what happened to Mr. Collins.”