A 25-year-old inmate serving time for robbery was found unresponsive in his cell at William Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer on Saturday afternoon and later died, becoming at least the fourth inmate death reported in Jefferson County in October. Daquavion Kyrique Brown was discovered around 3:40 p.m. and pronounced dead at the facility at 4:12 p.m., according to the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office.
An autopsy performed Sunday showed no evidence of trauma or foul play, as reported by Alabama's 42 News. The cause of death remains pending additional laboratory studies, according to ABC 3340, which also reported that Alabama Department of Corrections Law Enforcement Services is investigating the death.
Brown was serving a sentence tied to a 2021 robbery case out of Tuscaloosa County, the station’s report noted. As detailed by AL.com, Brown pleaded guilty in 2023 to robbing a woman on Third Avenue in Tuscaloosa in 2021 — pushing her into a building wall, holding a pistol to her head, and demanding, “Give me everything you got.” According to the same report, Brown handed the woman a Taco Bell bag, and she placed her money and phone inside it before the phone’s location allowed her to track it to the Greene County Jail, where she later recognized Brown on the jail’s website after he was arrested on unrelated charges. Brown was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with five years to serve, AL.com reported.
A String of Deaths at the Same Facility
Brown’s death is the latest in a recent cluster at Donaldson. Per WVTM 13, 63-year-old Bobby Earl Griffin was found dead inside his single-person cell at the prison and was pronounced dead at 7:13 p.m. on Oct. 17, according to ABC 3340's earlier coverage. WVTM 13 also reported that on Oct. 11, 33-year-old Montracious Devon Harris was found unresponsive inside his single-person cell at Donaldson, and that on Oct. 6, 60-year-old Michael Kennedy of Center Point died at UAB Hospital after reporting to jail staff three days earlier that he felt ill.
Other deaths at the facility have occurred in previous years. In a case reported by WBRC, 45-year-old inmate Antwion Webb was stabbed by a fellow Donaldson inmate on Sept. 12, 2025, and died the following day. Separately, CBS 42 reported that 29-year-old Gerald Denorch Cochran Jr. died at 12:14 a.m. one Saturday after correctional staff found him unresponsive during a routine safety check. Further back, 33-year-old Coron Abdullah died in a restrictive-housing cell in Donaldson’s infirmary in August 2024. ADOC classified Demetrise Maye’s death as an accidental/overdose due to fentanyl.
Deaths Statewide Draw Scrutiny
The recent cluster at Donaldson comes amid broader concern about death rates across Alabama’s prison system. An ACLU of Alabama report found that at least 277 people died in Alabama prisons in 2024, a figure that matched the count provided by the Alabama Department of Corrections, according to the Alabama Reflector. The report found that accidental deaths or overdoses made up the largest single category, accounting for 46 deaths, while the causes of 105 deaths were listed as unknown or still under investigation and another 77 were attributed to natural causes without a specified diagnosis.
The Reflector’s analysis also found that four facilities accounted for nearly half of all 2024 prison deaths statewide — 47% combined — with Kilby Correctional Facility recording the highest total at 36 deaths, followed by St. Clair Correctional Facility with 35, Limestone Correctional Facility with 34, and Bullock Correctional Facility with 26. The same report noted that while Black Alabamians make up about 26% of the state’s overall population, they comprise almost 60% of its prison population and accounted for an equal share of 2024 prison deaths.
Brown’s death remains under investigation, and officials have not released further details on what led to his passing.
