A 60-year-old man awaiting trial on a murder charge from a 2014 gasoline attack has died after falling ill inside the Jefferson County Jail's Bessemer Division. Michael Kennedy grew sick on October 3 and was taken to UAB Hospital in Birmingham, where he died on October 6.
A Decade-Old Killing, A Pending Murder Case
Kennedy had been charged in the July 2014 killing of 49-year-old Deborah Diane Prater, according to AL.com. Jefferson County sheriff's deputies were dispatched just after 2:30 a.m. on a Sunday in July 2014 to the 4400 block of Nellie Anderson Street, where they found Prater doused in gasoline and set on fire with a cigarette, the outlet reported. She suffered extensive burns to her head, arms, upper body and legs, and died several days later. Prater and Kennedy had dated for roughly three years before she ended the relationship about a month before the attack, and he was accused of setting her on fire during an argument, per the same account. According to Fox News, authorities initially expected Prater to survive her injuries before her condition deteriorated and she died two days after the attack, prompting prosecutors to upgrade the charge against Kennedy to murder.
Jefferson County Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates said an autopsy for Kennedy was set for Wednesday, the article noted. Kennedy had a documented history of mental illness and was deemed incompetent to stand trial. The outlet reported that he had left a family member's home and was not taking his mental-health medication before he was booked back into the Jefferson County Jail in May 2025.
Ordered Into State Care, Still Waiting More Than A Year Later
In July 2026, Bessemer Cutoff Circuit Judge Thomas Thrash ordered that Kennedy remain jailed until he could be placed with the Alabama Department of Mental Health for restorative services, per the same report. A status hearing in the case had been set for December. That wait reflects a statewide bottleneck: Taylor Hardin Secure Medical Facility in Tuscaloosa is Alabama's only secure psychiatric hospital for male defendants needing competency restoration, and its capacity is 225 beds, according to the Alabama Department of Mental Health. Under Rule 11 of the Alabama Rules of Criminal Procedure, once a circuit judge commits a defendant to state custody for competency restoration, that person is placed on a waitlist while remaining jailed or on bond, the department's materials explain.
As of July 2026, the Alabama Department of Mental Health reported 291 criminal defendants statewide waiting inside county jails for forensic mental health treatment and competency restoration, down from 327 in January 2026, according to the Alabama Political Reporter. Those delays have been under federal court oversight since a 2018 consent decree in Hunter v. Beshear, a class-action lawsuit filed in 2016 that cited unconstitutional delays in transferring mentally ill pretrial detainees out of county lockups. ADMH Commissioner Kim Boswell has pointed to a $40 million General Fund cut in 2010, which led to facility closures and the loss of 725 psychiatric beds, as a root cause of the backlog that persists today.
An Earlier Death At The Bessemer Facility
Kennedy's death follows another in-custody death at the same Bessemer jail. On August 26, 57-year-old Joey Thomas Reach, who had been in custody on a capital murder charge since July, was found dead inside his private cell during a welfare check, according to the Trussville Tribune.
In September 2022, 34-year-old Wesley Wayne Moore died at UAB Hospital after a medical emergency while incarcerated at the Jefferson County Jail, where jail medical staff unsuccessfully administered naloxone, according to the Alabama Political Reporter. That case was investigated by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office.
