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Written by: E. George
Published October 9, 2024 @ 1:50 PM ET
COBB COUNTY, Ga. – A fight between two Fulton County inmates being housed in the Cobb County Jail resulted in the death of one man, 63-year-old Horace Gibbs. The altercation occurred early Friday morning, leading to Gibbs being found unresponsive by his cellmate, 52-year-old Ernest Johnson, who alerted deputies to the situation.
Gibbs was transported to a local hospital, but despite efforts to save him, he was pronounced dead. An autopsy conducted by the Cobb County Medical Examiner’s Office determined the manner of death to be homicide and the cause of death to be strangulation.
Johnson has been charged with felony murder and aggravated assault by strangulation.
Both inmates were housed at Cobb County Jail due to the overcrowding issues plaguing the Fulton County Jail. As of recent reports, 196 Fulton County inmates are currently held at Cobb County, although that number has fluctuated, reaching as high as 228 at times.
The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office has been forced to outsource inmates to various facilities, including those in Cobb County, Oconee County, and the Atlanta City Detention Center, in an effort to manage the inmate population amid deteriorating conditions.
Horace Gibbs had been incarcerated since September 2, 2022, after being arrested by the Atlanta Police Department for multiple offenses, including criminal trespass and willful obstruction of a law enforcement officer. He was held on a bond of $12,500.
Ernest Johnson was arrested just weeks prior, on September 6, for three counts of terrorist threats and acts, in addition to two counts of willful obstruction of a law enforcement officer, with a bond set at $6,500.
Reports have surfaced over the years detailing incidents of inmate-on-inmate violence, assaults on staff, and even fatalities of inmates under the sheriff’s office custody.
Due to these issues, Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat sought funding for a new jail facility, with estimates for construction reaching as high as $1.7 billion. However, the Fulton County Commission recently approved only $300 million for upgrades to the existing jail, a decision criticized by many who argue that it fails to address the core issues of overcrowding and facility deterioration.
A 2023 Fulton County Jail feasibility study described the facility as “obsolete, overcrowded, deteriorated, and unsafe.”