Emmanuel Chandiga was arrested and booked on one count of second-degree murder on October 9, but five days later, Maricopa County prosecutors announced they would not pursue the case at all. The reason: a self-defense claim they say they cannot disprove in court, stemming from the March 2026 death of his cellmate at Lower Buckeye Jail in Phoenix.
The Maricopa County Attorney's Office determined there was no reasonable likelihood of overcoming a self-defense claim, according to ABC15 Arizona. A spokesperson for the office said prosecutors reviewed the submission and the evidence before reaching that conclusion, according to the same report.
The case began on March 3, when Maricopa County Sheriff's Office detention officers were conducting a security check at Lower Buckeye Jail and an officer heard muffled noises coming from a cell, according to ABC15. When an officer looked inside, he saw Chandiga on top of a face-down inmate. Additional officers who arrived found Chandiga straddling the victim's back with his hands extended, apparently holding the back of the victim's neck.
Officers Drew a Taser as Victim Was Found Unresponsive
Officers entered the cell and drew a Taser as they worked to separate the two men, as reported by ABC15. The victim was found unresponsive with a faint pulse and was transported to Banner University Medical Center, where he was pronounced deceased. The MCSO jail death site lists 47-year-old Jowuan Hunt as an inmate who died at Lower Buckeye Jail that day, though the victim's identity has not been confirmed in court records, per the same account.
Detectives who processed the cell found blood evidence consistent with a physical altercation, but no weapons were discovered, and no witnesses to the fight were located, as noted by ABC15. No one besides Chandiga and the victim was inside the cell at the time, and MCSO said all inmates in the pod were secured in their cells when it happened.
Chandiga gave detectives his account of what happened inside the cell. He said the victim struck him while he was sleeping on the bottom bunk, and that the victim threw him during the altercation that followed. Chandiga told investigators he then stood up and kicked the victim twice in the body, that he threw the victim to the ground, and that he did not hit the victim while the two were on the ground. He said he believed the victim wanted to kill him, and that he was still on top of the victim when officers arrived.
Medical Examiner Cites Strangulation and Multiple Injuries
Detectives received the final medical examiner's report on October 8, more than seven months after the death. The medical examiner determined the cause of death was mixed-modality trauma, including strangulation and blunt force trauma, and ruled the manner of death a homicide, per the station's reporting. The findings included rib fractures with muscle hemorrhage, a fracture of the thyroid cartilage, and petechial hemorrhage in the right eye.
The timeline of Chandiga's brief stay at Lower Buckeye Jail includes another documented clash before the fatal incident. Phoenix police had arrested him on an assault charge on February 20, and he received a disciplinary action report for manipulating housing assignments and refusing direct orders before being moved to Lower Buckeye Jail the following day. On February 22, records indicate he was involved in a separate altercation with a different cellmate and was charged with misdemeanor assault for biting that cellmate, for which he was sentenced to seven days in jail, per a report from ABC15.
Sheriff's Office Says It Defers to Prosecutors' Charging Decisions
A Maricopa County Sheriff's Office spokesperson told the outlet that the agency prepares cases for submission to the County Attorney's Office and then respects whatever decision prosecutors reach. That deference reflects how Arizona's justification laws function once a self-defense claim is raised: under Arizona Revised Statutes 13-404, a person is justified in using physical force when and to the extent a reasonable person would believe it immediately necessary to protect himself, with a related provision in statute 13-405 governing the use of deadly physical force.
This is not an isolated outcome in the county. AZFamily has reported that prosecutors similarly declined to prosecute a 14-year-old who claimed self-defense after fatally stabbing 15-year-old Jaylen Reeves at a Phoenix park in November 2024, and that a grand jury rejected charges against a man who fatally shot a father in Tempe after he raised the same defense. In a separate case, prosecutors turned down manslaughter charges against Timothy Grant in the March 2024 stabbing death of David Ricks, citing no reasonable likelihood of conviction.
The death also lands amid a difficult stretch for Maricopa County's jail system. The outlet reported that four inmates died in county custody over a two-week span in 2026, with all four deaths occurring at Lower Buckeye Jail, and that fourteen inmates had died in custody that year at the time of that report. Jail oversight official Andy Hall told the station that accidental drug intoxication accounts for roughly 60 percent of deaths in the county system. The sheriff's office added body scanners systemwide and two drug-detection dogs last November in response to the broader pattern, according to the same report.
