Paul Hammel
LINCOLN — State Corrections officials are facing another lawsuit concerning the slaying of an inmate in a double-bunked cell that is eerily similar to a 2017 murder within prison walls.
Earlier this month, the estate of deceased inmate Kevin Carter filed a updated federal lawsuit alleging that then-State Corrections Director Scott Frakes and 10 other prison officials were negligent and reckless in housing the then-20-year-old Carter with a reportedly paranoid, delusional and threatening convicted murderer.
On Nov. 6, 2020, about a week after Carter was housed in the same cell at the Nebraska State Penitentiary with inmate Angelo Bol, Carter was found unresponsive under a bed sheet. He later was pronounced dead.
Bol had history of mental illness
At the time, Bol, who was 40, was serving a life sentence for shooting and killing a former co-worker in the parking lot of a packinghouse in Gibbon, Nebraska, in 2015.
Carter, who was from Council Bluffs, was serving a six- to nine-year sentence for terroristic threats and assault with a deadly weapon in association with a street corner stabbing near downtown Omaha in 2019.
The lawsuit, filed in November but amended earlier this month, stated that prison medical officials were “aware of the dangers posed by Bol, especially when he was unmedicated.”
Despite that, officials ended the involuntary medication of Bol, who had a history of schizophrenia, delusional disorder and paranoia. That decision led to the death, according to the lawsuit filed by Omaha attorney Tom Monaghan.
Bol, the lawsuit alleges, told prison officials he didn’t want to be housed in the same cell as Carter because he believed that he was “connected to a Sudanese tribe that had hired Carter to kill (him).”
Officials ‘indifferent’ to risks
Bol, who had a history of assaulting other inmates and threatening guards, said he would kill Carter if they were not separated, the lawsuit stated.
Prison officials, the lawsuit claims, were “indifferent” to the risks posed by Bol, even though they were well aware of potential fatal consequences of housing two inmates in a single cell due to a similar slaying in a double-bunked cell in 2017.
Because of overcrowded conditions in Nebraska prisons — they held nearly 1,900 more inmates than they’re designed for at the end of 2023 — officials required two inmates to double-bunk in some cells designed for a single prisoner.
That includes the Nebraska State Penitentiary, which held an average of 205 inmates per day above its design capacity of 818 in the last quarter of 2023. Overcrowding and staff shortages were cited as problems in the Carter lawsuit.
In the past, State Corrections officials have said they screen inmates to ensure that they are compatible and can co-exist safely.
But in the wake of a similar, 2017 slaying in a double-bunked call, a state legislative watcher, Doug Koebernick, who is the Inspector General of Corrections, called for the practice to be suspended and reviewed.
A spokeswoman for Corrections declined to comment, citing agency policy of not commenting on pending lawsuits.
Monaghan, who is a former U.S. district attorney, also declined to comment.
The lawsuit cites the 2017 murder of an inmate in a double-bunked cell in stating that prison officials should have been aware of the risks.
Berry family won settlement
In that case, Terry Berry, a 22-year-old inmate, was choked to death by his cellmate, Patrick Schroeder, after they were double-bunked in a solitary confinement cell at the Tecumseh State Prison.
Schroeder, who was serving life in prison for the murder of a Pawnee City farmer, had told prison officials he didn’t want to be housed with Berry and said he killed him because “he wouldn’t shut up.”
Schroeder was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, but he committed suicide two years ago in his cell at Tecumseh.
Berry’s family, meanwhile, was awarded $479,000 to settle a lawsuit against a handful of prison officials who made the decision to double-bunk the pair.
A similar lawsuit against the Department of Corrections over the death was dismissed in a controversial, split ruling by the Nebraska Supreme Court, concluding that the government was immune from such lawsuits. Unlike that lawsuit, the Carter case attacks the individuals — not the government institution — who made the decision to double bunk the inmates.
Bol, now 44, is awaiting trial in Lancaster County for first-degree murder. He was initially deemed not competent to stand trial, but after treatment at the Lincoln Regional Center, he was found competent in May for the case to proceed.