Every day, Stacy Zimmerman waited for her daily phone call from the Richmond City Justice Center. It had become a part of her routine — a habitual, unspoken promise between her and her nephew, Steven Carey.
With just a couple of weeks away from his trial date, Zimmerman said, he was looking ahead to the future and praying for a clean slate. Now, instead of preparing for his trial, his family is picking out a casket and making funeral arrangements.
“His life had purpose. I wish he would have been treated like a human being. Every single inmate deserves to be treated like a person, not an animal,” Zimmerman said. “His cries went unheard, and that’s the biggest reason I think this happened.”
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Carey, 37, died Wednesday morning while in custody at the jail, making him the fourth inmate in 10 months to die under the supervision of Richmond City Sheriff Antionette Irving and the third in the last three months.
Steven Carey, 37, died in the custody of the Richmond City Justice Center on Wednesday. His death is considered an ongoing investigation.
They are still waiting for answers.
“They haven’t told us anything,” Carey’s aunt Holley Grooms said.
As of Friday morning, officials have not released details on Carey’s cause of death.
At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Irving said that despite medical staff administering Narcan twice, she did not know whether drugs were involved in the incident, as Narcan can be provided safely whether someone has overdosed or not. Narcan is a medication used to reverse or reduce the effects of opioids.
Irving addressed the prevalence of drugs within the jail, saying that while the department is doing the best it can, there are drugs present in every facility and if people want them, they will “get creative.”
Sheriff Antionette Irving spoke about Steven Carey's death at the Richmond City Justice Center on Wednesday. He is the third inmate to die under her supervision in the past three months. Despite inadequate staffing levels, Irving said the facility is compliant with Department of Justice standards.
While Carey was never arrested, charged or convicted of any drug-related crimes, Zimmerman said he had battled with drug addiction, specifically heroin and fentanyl, but she is not sure if was using while in jail. During their daily conversations, she emphasized that he never sounded as if he were under the influence.
“Was he often sad? Yes. Depressed? Yes. Frequently, he cried, but he never sounded impaired and even if he was using, they should have done something to help him; he’s still a person,” Zimmerman added.
‘We just want some answers’
As Carey’s death is considered an ongoing investigation, it will likely be several more weeks until the family learns more about his death. It is a wait that continues to weigh on the family.
“We just want some answers first and foremost,” Grooms said. “We’d been hearing from him how bad it is there.”
According to Zimmerman, Carey often felt unsafe and lived in constant fear. A couple of days before Christmas, Zimmerman said Carey told her he had been stabbed but quickly changed the subject when she asked if he had reported it. Likely, if he did not report it, it was to ensure his safety, Zimmerman added.
Despite several attempts to contact Irving via phone and email, she could not be reached to confirm whether Carey had reported an incident.
Carey was booked into the jail almost a year prior on charges of attempted murder, eluding police and firearm possession by a violent felon. He pleaded guilty to the eluding charge and was scheduled to appear for jury trial on Jan. 23 for the possession charge, with a hearing regarding the attempted murder charge set for February.
“My nephew did some bad things and he deserved to do his time, but he didn’t deserve this,” Grooms said.
Inadequate staffing levels
Carey is the fourth inmate to die in the jail in the past 10 months and the third in the past three months. Dantron Lemarco Harris died of an overdose in March. Nina Hill died in October, and Vance Holloway died in December. Both of their causes of death have not been released.
The recent deaths highlight larger ongoing concerns regarding the state of the jail, including staffing levels and the inmates’ access to drugs.
According to Irving, staffing levels are low with several vacancies and more retirements scheduled in early 2023.
Despite inadequate staffing levels, Irving said the facility is compliant with Department of Justice standards, which require deputies to make twice hourly rounds of the jail pods to check on the well-being of inmates.
Oversight of Virginia’s jails is conducted by the Virginia Board of Local and Regional Jails. The group, housed in the Department of Corrections, conducts audits and investigates inmate deaths to determine whether the jail was at fault.
Irving said no investigators from those agencies have visited the jail since Hill’s death in October and that she had sent them video and reports for their investigations.
As for the Carey family, they continue to patiently wait for answers and are hopeful that changes are made as a result of Carey’s death.
“If anything, I just pray it’ll be different for others, because of all this,” Zimmerman said. “He never got the help he needed.”
PHOTOS: Recognize these Richmond-area places?
In October 1951, workers constructed a section of Forest Hill Avenue in South Richmond. The segment sits between Westover Hills Boulevard and Prince Arthur Road.
In December 1990, a Richmond Ballet dancer stretched before rehearsal of “The Nutcracker.”
In February 1953, Richmond Department of Utilities workers used a 65-foot hook-and-ladder firetruck to install new lights on Broad Street after attempts to secure other ladder equipment from private companies had failed.
In May 1954, Scoop sniffed around the pet food aisle at a grocery store in Richmond’s West End. The store offered a large selection of pet foods, a relatively new concept for the era. The accompanying article said: “Gone, apparently, are the days that Fido took the scraps from the table and liked them.”
In September 1942, members of Richmond Hotels Inc. donated typewriters to the War Production Board and the Office of War Information in response to an appeal for businesses to let the government have any machines they could spare.
In August 1981, children enjoyed outdoor recreation at Camp Happyland in the Richardsville area of Culpeper County, not far from Fredericksburg. The Salvation Army started the camp in the late 1950s to improve children’s health through exercise and proper nutrition.
In March 1971, a crowd estimated at several hundred waited outside City Council chambers at City Hall in downtown Richmond. Residents of the recently annexed Broad Rock area were protesting the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s proposal for low-rent public housing in the area.
In March 1969, a sign went up to mark the site of Henrico County’s first permanent designated library, on Laburnum Avenue near New Market Road. On hand were (from left) Varina District Supervisor Edwin Ragsdale, library board trustee Mrs. F.M. Vaughan, library assistant Virginia Liles and county libraries director David Rowland. The library opened in December 1970.
In June 1969, a Trappist monk at the Holy Cross Abbey near Berryville in Clarke County began his daily meditation. The monks spent their days balancing quiet prayer, spiritual reading and manual labor.
In June 1956, the Rev. Lawrence V. Bradley Jr. of Grove Avenue Baptist Church in Richmond and his secretary, Jean Bolton, got out the summertime heat beater: a simple cardboard fan. The pews were liberally stocked during the warm months because the church had no air conditioning.
In July 1959, the normally bustling downtown Richmond business district, including this stretch along Eighth and Main streets, was much quieter as motorists stayed home because of triple-digit heat.
In April 1966, Union Bag-Camp Paper Corp. officials oversaw manufacturing at a new plant in Chesterfield County. The facility produced millions of bags for supermarket chains and other clients on the East Coast. At the time, about 265 employees worked in two local company plants; the old factory at 13th and Canal streets in Richmond was open for limited operation until it was sold.
In March 1969, a sign went up to mark the site of Henrico County’s first permanent designated library, on Laburnum Avenue near New Market Road. The branch opened in December 1970. Posing with the sign were (from left) Varina District Supervisor Edwin Ragsdale, library board trustee Mrs. F.M. Vaughan, library assistant Virginia Liles and county libraries director David Rowland.
In August 1982, David Tidwell of Croaker posed with his girlfriend’s dog, Blazing Amber of Cinder, at the humorous “Norge Dog Station” at Norge Grocery on U.S. Route 60 west of Williamsburg. The sign had been put up seven years earlier, and the spot became a popular photo opportunity for visitors.
In March 1987, in preparation for new carpeting, the Dumbarton branch library in Henrico County had to remove about 80,000 books from shelves. About 50 people handled the first phase overnight — but restocking the shelves awaited.
This 1957 photo shows Collegiate School in the 1600 block of Monument Avenue in Richmond. The Town School elementary building was on the left and the high school on the right. In 1960, the Town School and the Country Day School merged, operating on the campus off River and Mooreland roads in Henrico County. It remains the location today.
In November 1970, a Richmond officer rode his horse by the police bureau’s new stables, which were under construction. The facility near Brook Road and Chamberlayne Avenue included eight stalls, a scrub area, a horseshoeing area and a tack room. The bureau had been looking for an established home for its horses since the mid-1960s, when the Virginia National Guard moved from the Richmond Howitzers downtown armory, where the horses had been stabled for two decades.
In March 1971, a crowd estimated at several hundred waited outside City Council chambers at City Hall in downtown Richmond. Residents of the recently annexed Broad Rock area were protesting the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s proposal for low-rent public housing in the area.
In November 1948, Army Lt. Charles D. Smith Jr. administered the oath to the first set of postwar draftees processed at the Richmond induction station at First and Broad streets. Several of the men were immediately sent to Camp Pickett in Blackstone.
In December 1938, Richmond Glass Shop had a new home at 814 W. Broad St., site of the old Ashland Railway Station. The shop, run by brothers Frank R. and A.G. Bialkowski, had glass of many types, and offered bath and kitchen installation, storefront construction and paint products.
In March 1979, corrections officer Howard Alexander held the homemade rope used by convicted murderer Michael Irwin Cross to escape from the State Penitentiary, then located along Spring Street in downtown Richmond. Cross was captured two months later after attempting to free a fellow convict who was being treated at Medical College of Virginia Hospital.
In June 1986, “Mr. Newspaper” greeted a young girl and her mother at a Richmond-area mall. The RTD mascot often traveled around town promoting the newspaper.
In July 1951, Alonzo Moore, 74, walked down a street in Cape Charles on Virginia’s Eastern Shore and blew his horn, alerting locals to his sale of the fresh catch of the day.
In July 1960, the Schellenberg family of Highland Springs prepared to have a bomb shelter installed in their yard, one of Virginia’s first privately owned radiation fallout shelters. The enclosure was designed to accommodate up to six people during a nuclear attack. The horizontal steel tank (rear) was 7 feet in diameter and 16 feet long. Once installed, the only elements aboveground would be a domed entrance and air filter and exhaust pipes.
In June 1979, Terry Woo set bricks for a walkway as construction of Kanawha Plaza in downtown Richmond continued. The $4 million dollar city-financed plaza linked the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond building and the Virginia Electric and Power Co. building.
In July 1951, two women enjoyed the white sand beach of Cape Charles on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
In June 1968, workers welded boilers at Old Dominion Iron and Steel Corp., located on Belle Isle under the Lee Bridge in Richmond. At the time, Old Dominion’s owner was interested in expanding operations, and the city was interested in using the island as part of a James River park. The company’s history on Belle Isle spanned from before the Civil War to the 1970s.
In November 1972, after the remnants of Hurricane Agnes had washed out a bridge, a barge carried vehicles and workers across the James River from Tredegar Street toward Belle Isle in Richmond. A day earlier, a welder for Old Dominion Iron and Steel Corp. drowned after a boat carrying him and others capsized on the same route.
This December 1973 photo shows the front counter in Roaring Twenties, a new restaurant and nightclub on state Route 10 in the Hopewell area. It was designed to resemble a 1920s speakeasy, with features including an antique cash register, a diving girl and even a dining table from Al Capone’s Florida home.
In October 1969, cadets at John Marshall High School in Richmond posed with their ribbon-bedecked sponsors after an awards ceremony. The school’s Corps of Cadets was established in 1915 — it was the first military training program in a public school in Virginia — and disbanded in 1971.
In May 1989, a transformer exploded under the sidewalk on the Fourth Street side of the Richmond Newspapers Inc. building downtown. The ensuing fireball charred two cars parked on the street and sent flames up the side of the building. No one was hurt in the nighttime explosion, and delivery of the next morning’s Richmond Times-Dispatch (which was printed in the building) was only slightly delayed.
In August 1972, motorists approaching construction on Interstate 64 south of Bryan Park in Richmond were greeted by a robot signalman waving a bright red flag. “Silent Sam,” as the decoy was nicknamed, was used by the state Department of Highways to slow drivers as they neared workmen building an I-195 interchange and bridge near the Acca rail yards.
