Victim Dies Following Alleged Beating in Vermont Prison Cell 

A Vermont prisoner who police say was severely beaten by his cellmate just before Christmas died on Friday.

Jeffrey Hall, 55, had been hospitalized for nearly three months after being discovered bloody and unconscious on the floor of the cell he shared with 21-year-old Mbyayenge Mafuta, according to Vermont State Police.

Mafuta was arraigned last month for attempted murder, though state prosecutors in Franklin County could elect to amend the charge in light of Hall's death, state police said.

The incident took place during the afternoon of December 22, while corrections officers at Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans were conducting a head count of the general population unit. Hall and Mafuta had each been imprisoned there pending trial, meaning they had not been convicted of a crime. Hall was reportedly detained for larceny, driving a motor vehicle without the owner's consent and providing false information to police. Mafuta faced numerous charges, many tied to his alleged vandalism of more than 30 homes in Burlington's South End.
They had been cellmates for only a couple of days, according to the police affidavit. Just three days earlier, Mafuta had been placed in a segregation unit on mental health watch. He'd reported hearing voices and having thoughts of harming himself or others, according to an excerpt of a clinician's note included in court documents.

The following day, December 20, an employee of the state's prison health care contractor, VitalCore Health Strategies, emailed prison staff to say that Mafuta was stable and could "come off full precautions." Mafuta was no longer having thoughts of harming himself or others and said solitary confinement was not helping his mental state.

"He was able to process what happened last night and create a plan" for being in the general population, the clinician's email stated. Mafuta was then placed in a cell with Hall, according to the affidavit.

There were no witnesses to the alleged assault two days later. Corrections officers heard yelling during the cell checks. Hall was unconscious when they entered the cell; they reported seeing blood on Mafuta's sweatshirt. Mafuta, who appeared uninjured, declined to speak to investigators.

DOC staff interviewed 23 prisoners in the unit. Several of them described Mafuta as having psychiatric issues and making statements to them about hearing peoples' thoughts and needing medication.

Weeks later, a corrections officer at Northwest reported overhearing Mafuta tell two other prisoners in the segregation unit that he had "punched and kicked" Hall in the head.

Hall suffered a serious brain injury that leaves most patients in a vegetative state, according to the police affidavit. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will conduct an autopsy to determine Hall's cause of death.

Mafuta is currently housed at Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield, according to the state's prisoner database.