Justice For Jovian
Share this story:
The Texas prison system is covering up the truth about the death of a young prison guard. Jovian Motley’s family has been denied the whole truth for over a year, and it’s time to demand JUSTICE FOR JOVIAN. The agency faces a legislative review in Austin this week.
We train prison guards for moments like this: what they call a “cell extraction.” The way to deal with an unruly inmate. It is violent… Ugly to watch…
But the inmate is always heavily outnumbered… Four or five to one… The guards have protective helmets. Gas masks.
So how is possible that this Texas prison guard could actually die doing this?
Suffocated in fact… While other jail guards were clearly in a position to save him.
“Eight people and nobody saw nothing. Someone is un-alive and no one saw or can say exactly what happened to Jovian,” said the guard’s mother Tammica Motley.
This prison inmate is now charged with capital murder.
But did the Texas Prison System have a hand in killing Jovian Motley… are they trying to cover up the negligence?
“It’s been a year and we’re still stuck at November 13th, 2023. It is like the first day. We still do not know what happened in that cell,” she added.
25-year-old Jabari Lewis is shackled as he’s led into a Houston County Courtroom in Crockett, Texas… Surrounded by nearly a dozen lawmen.
It was the first time Jovian’s family had seen the man accused of killing their son.
“Gut-wrenching would probably be a good word. I had to remember to breathe a couple of times,” Tammica stated.
But the indictment of this 160-pound inmate doesn’t bring them comfort that justice is truly being served.
They believe the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is still trying to hide the negligence that helped get their son killed.
“I’m standing here today to let you know I’m tired. I’m tired. I want to know: how do you sleep at night?” Tammica questioned the TDCJ Board.
Jovian Motley was just 27 years old when he died.
“Jovian had a big personality. He was goofy, he was silly, but he was so loving,” described his mother.
He had been a corrections officer for just over a year… Wanted to help inmates improve their lives.
“He loved what he did. He said he saw himself in a lot of those men in there and he wanted to make a difference,” affirmed Tammica.
We can’t show you the video of what happened the day Jovian Motley died… But you have a right to see it. More than a year after it happened, the prison system still refuses to make the video of the incident public.
They don’t think you even have a right to see video of any jail extractions.
But a small portion of the incident report was somehow leaked to Jovian’s family by a whistleblower.
Five prison guards were extracting Jabari Lewis… Who is serving 2 consecutive 5-year sentences for aggravated robbery.
Lewis had apparently refused to return his food tray… Covered the slot with a blanket.
Guards sprayed MK-9, a powerful pepper spray.
When Lewis still wouldn’t comply… four guards, “the extraction team”, including Jovian, went in to get Lewis out of the cell.
They are in the cell for five long minutes… The family says the cell was only 9 feet deep and 5 feet wide. So how did Jovian come out dead?
“So I just can’t understand how someone so skilled and so trained, with four people in the room. That would be his fate. I just. I can’t wrap my mind around that,” Tammica said.
The cause of death… Asphyxiation.
And she adds: “What was the urgency of sending five men into a dark cell?”
The Motleys wanted to see the last minutes of their son’s life. As rough as it would be, the Motleys needed to see what happened in the last minutes of their son’s life.
It took the prison system three weeks to show them…
And after seeing it they were literally left in the dark.
“We saw the footage that they provided. It is highly redacted. It’s very dark. So it doesn’t show what happened in the cell,” Tammica explained.
But it does show why Lewis was likely complaining in the first place… The only light in his small cell was out of order… the cell was pitch black.
Ariel Manning was Jovian’s training supervisor at the prison… She understands cell extraction protocol and says doing cell extractions is dangerous enough.
You don’t do them in the dark.
“You don’t know who you’re up against yet. You don’t know what’s going on. You don’t know what you are going into,” she expressed.
“There were too many ways they could deescalate that situation without having to go into that cell”.
Phanisha Bell also worked in the prison system. She was Jovian’s girlfriend and says the inmate may have had a legitimate reason for wanting attention.
“He was basically asking for what was basically owed to him, like he was asking for a light and his water wasn’t working,” claimed Phanisha.
We asked to see prison maintenance records so we could see just how long the only light in Lewis’s cell might have been out.
TDCJ refused to let us see them… Claiming a review of prison maintenance could somehow compromise prison security.
That’s absurd. What it does is conceal your right to see how your tax money is being spent or -not- spent if prisons aren’t being maintained.
We know the supervisor who ordered the extraction was Lieutenant Kent Glassel.
Tammica says he was disciplined after Jovian’s death…
Now after another incident one year later it was recommended he be fired…
“I think the fact that Glassel is now terminated after another use of force, he should have been terminated after what happened to Jovian,” Tammica expressed.
In June, Lewis was indicted for capital murder. The family has seen his admissions from the night Jovian died.
“They still had the camera on him, and he was just saying, I didn’t mean to kill him. I didn’t mean to kill him. He’s claiming self-defense and ‘I was defending myself; They were attacking me’ and all of that,” Tammica revealed.
But is Lewis the only guilty party?
“Not one person can shed light on what happened to Jovian Motley… so I am here to shed some light. This cost me ten dollars… All of the billions being spent on TDCJ and you tell me you can’t afford a flashlight?” questioned Tammica in a TDCJ meeting in April.
Bryan Collier has been the executive director of the TDCJ since 2016.
“During the past calendar year, we have tracked a significant increase in the number of violent events that have occurred on our facilities with our inmate population,” he said in a video.
Collier’s term is tainted by one of the deadliest failures in Texas prison history.
In 2022, a Mexican mafia member… Serving a life sentence for capital murder… With one previous escape attempt… Escaped during transport to a medical appointment.
Gonzalo Lopez killed 5 members of a Centerville, Texas family before being shot to death by law enforcement.
An independent investigation of the incident found more than 20 TDCJ employees failed to adhere to existing security policies…
20 people were disciplined… In just one incident.
But it’s not why Sharika Camp wants Collier fired…It’s that broken light in the cell Jovian Motley was sent into…
“We demand your resignation. Why was the cell dark, Brian?” inquired her during a TDCJ meeting.
Mother wants Collier to pay the price… Not just for the incident… But the way the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is still hiding the whole truth…
“When you have officers that are not equipped with the things that they need to do their job and to go into dark cells, where the lighting is not enough to give information as to why one officer didn’t come out alive, it’s a safety issue,” Tammica emphasized during the Sunset Advisory Commission.
“There’s going to be a young man that might get charged with some type of crime here. You know, that is what it is. But nevertheless, this could have been prevented by his employer. He died due to the fact that TDCJ does not care about their employees,” stated Motley’s attorney Justin Moore in a press conference.
“I want to speak to those correctional officers that say they love my son and speak out. Say something. Tell the truth. We’re not going to stop until we get the truth. My son did not have to die,” Tammica added.
We called the other prison guards from the cell that night, but the TDCJ has told them not to talk.
The only one we could get on the phone was Sam Kuria.
Kuria [on the phone] “We don’t answer any questions about it without permission. We don’t answer any questions…”
Don’t ask questions he says…
“I believe that Jovian, the type of person he was, he went in there to protect his team, and I feel that they let him down,” expressed Tammica.
The TDCJ would like us and the family to stop asking questions.
“We’ve been told plenty of times not to talk and not to say anything. We don’t want to ruin the case. Whose case?” she asked.
The case against Jabari Lewis…
A special prosecutor might get his conviction… For him to take full blame.
But Jovian’s autopsy may complicate the prosecution… The autopsy confirms Lewis wasn’t the only one on top of Jovian that night.
The document states that “the decedent ended up on the floor with the inmate and at least one other guard on top of him.”
“If it was a mistake, let’s own it. Nothing will bring him back. But at least we can work to make sure that this doesn’t happen again,” Tammica declared.
“I want some policies and procedures, some laws that can’t be changed,” added Jovian’s father Edward Motley.
The Motleys cling to a special teddy bear… It holds a recording of their son’s voice.
[Jovian’s voice on the teddy bear] “I just want to say that I totally love you and I always have your back. No matter what, thick and thin, I will always have your back. And I know you’ll always have mine.”
“Hearing his voice is like he’s trapped in a teddy bear. And it’s like he’s trying to tell us something. To not give up searching for the truth,” Tammica exclaimed.
