Copyright Baton Rouge Advocate
A New Roads woman is suing the state after her son, a Dixon Correctional Institute inmate, was stabbed to death by other prisoners at the East Feliciana prison. Cornelius Kelly, 39, was serving time at Dixon on burglary-related charges when he was stabbed three times in the chest and abdomen on the prison’s yard the morning of Nov. 5, 2024. According to a wrongful death lawsuit filed last week in the U.S. Middle District Court of Louisiana, he had an altercation with four men also serving time the day before the fatal stabbing. Instead of separating him, prison officials placed Kelly back into general population despite the heightened risk to his safety, the filing argues. “Kelly’s death was due to the continued deliberate indifference of jail staff to ensure his safety and reasonable expectation to be free of harm from the tortious conduct of others,” lawsuit states. An East Feliciana grand jury indicted prisoners Joseph Constance, Terrell Holmes, Arsenio Wells and Taylor Williams on second-degree murder charges tied to Kelly’s death. Constance, 30, was serving time at Dixon Correctional for a second-degree rape. According to the lawsuit, he was the one who inflicted the stab wounds after two other inmates led Kelly out to the prison yard the day of the attack. Holmes, 34, was in jail for attempted murder; Wells, 35, was imprisoned on carjacking and armed robbery convictions; and 30-year-old Williams was serving time for aggravated battery, according to the East Feliciana Sheriff’s Office. Kelly’s mother, Joyce Kelly, filed the federal lawsuit Nov. 4 against Dixon Correctional warden Edward Dustin Bickham. The complaint says correctional officers should’ve recognized the increased threat of an attack on Cornelius Kelly after Constance, Holmes, Wells and Williams instigated the initial altercation with him on Nov. 4, 2024. They didn’t, the plaintiff alleges. Instead, according to the suit, two of the inmates led Kelly into the yard the following morning where the two other alleged attackers were waiting. Constance immediately stabbed Kelly once he entered the prison yard, the suit alleges. Kelly walked back inside, collapsed and died on the floor, it states. Joyce Kelly is suing for compensation and punitive damages, alleging she suffered pain and emotional distress from her son’s death. The New Roads woman claims Warden Bickham failed to train and supervise his staff to protect inmates from other violent prisoners. It alleges the prison guards’ deliberate indifference violated Cornelius Kelly’s constitutional right to a reasonably safe environment in prison and states officials’ negligence resulted in his death.
