Former deputy pleads guilty in inmate's death

Man refused to put on prison garb

Tuesday, November 20, 2007 By Gwen Filosa

With the victim's family watching in court, a former Orleans Parish deputy pleaded guilty to manslaughter for the 2004 fatal beating of a man booked into the local jail for lying drunk in the grass outside a gas station.

Matthew Strickland agreed to serve two years in prison for pushing Mark Travis Jones, 35, of Alabama, up against a wall in Central Lockup and striking him twice in the face with a closed fist.

"Mr. Jones immediately went limp," the signed plea bargain says. "Blood emanated from the rear of Mr. Jones' head."

Jones died from a brain hemorrhage after Strickland shoved him for smarting off to another deputy who had asked the arrestee to change into jail-issued clothes during booking. Jones had a blood-alcohol reading of 0.30, the corner's office said, more than three times the legal limit.

Strickland, 25, who resigned six months after the incident, has been free on twin $25,000 surety bonds since June 2005, days after a grand jury indicted him on a manslaughter charge. ...

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