OKLAHOMA CITY– A federal jury here convicted a former detention deputy at the Garvin County Jail in Pauls Valley for her role in the death of a pretrial detainee.
Paula Kelley, 57, was accused of being on duty as a detention deputy when she found Kayle Lee (Robinson) Turley, 32, in a jail cell, coping with serious medical needs. Kelley was “deliberately indifferent to the serious medical needs” of Turley, “resulting in bodily injury to Ms. Turley” and her death Aug. 9, 2023, at Norman Regional HealthPlex.
Five other people pleaded guilty for their roles in Turley’s death, too, and await sentencing.
In addition, the victim’s sister filed a federal lawsuit in Oklahoma City against the six defendants, the Garvin County sheriff, and Turn Key Health Clinics. Because of Kelley’s trial, further proceedings in the civil suit were stayed until July 1.
The guilty verdict June 12 found Kelley accountable for “her shocking failure to protect a vulnerable inmate in her care,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “By ignoring the victim’s serious medical needs, the defendant betrayed the most basic duties of her position and violated the victim’s civil rights.”
In August 2023, Turley had “the misfortune of being a pretrial detainee at the Garvin County Detention Center,” the lawsuit filed by her sister, Kenna Bundy, alleges.
The lawsuit alleges that the night of Aug. 4, 2023, Turley was placed in jail Cell #8, “a video-monitored cell that looks like a dungeon.” Paint was peeling off the walls. “Sixteen beds are crammed into a room that, according to Oklahoma Jail Standards, is fit to hold only 10 inmates at most.” As a result, Turley “would soon find herself lying on a mat on the floor as she died.”
Turley was transported to Chickasaw Medical Center because she was experiencing abdominal pain and other symptoms. Before releasing her back to the custody of the jail on Aug. 4, a physician at the hospital cautioned detention staff employed by the Garvin County Sheriff’s Office and medical personnel employed by Turn Key Health Clinic that Turley could have “a serious problem requiring surgery.”
The doctor “emphasized the importance of monitoring her carefully and returning her to the emergency room if her symptoms worsened – including if her pain became more severe.” The physician provided the following explicit discharge instruction: “RETURNWITH ANY WORSENING CONCERNS” (emphasis in original).
Evidence presented at trial proved Kelley was on duty as a GCJ detention deputy when she learned that pretrial detainee Turley was facing serious medical needs. Despite knowing and observing Turley’s medical condition, Kelley willfully failed to take any reasonable steps to address those needs, prosecutors showed. “Due to the failure to act by Kelley and other GCJ staff,” Turley suffered bodily injury and ultimately died from multisystem organ failure on Aug. 9, 2023.
In plea agreements, four other former detention deputies and one former GCJ nurse previously admitted being deliberately indifferent to a substantial risk of serious harm to Ms. Turley.
Detention Deputy Jennifer Baxter, 42, and former GCJ nurse Lynsee Noel, 40, each pleaded guilty, admitting their failure to take reasonable measures to help Turley get medical care for her serious medical needs.
At 1:28 a.m. on Aug. 6, “the inmates in Cell #8 are screaming at Ms. Turley to shut up. She has been moaning constantly in pain and has needed assistance for her basic needs, like going to the toilet,” the federal lawsuit filed by Turley’s sister alleges.
Baxter and Noel – along with former Detention Deputies Vincent Matthews, 35, and Alesha Ingram, 23 – all pleaded guilty to being deliberately indifferent to Turley’s safety when they failed to intervene and stop other inmates from assaulting Turley because the inmates became frustrated with her cries for help.
Former Detention Deputy Melissa Melton, 40, pleaded guilty to being deliberately indifferent to a substantial risk of serious harm to Turley due to her serious medical needs, resulting in bodily injury to her.
Baxter, Noel, Matthews, Ingram, and Melton each faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000; their plea agreements also decree that at sentencing the judge “will enter an order of restitution.” Kelley faces up to life in prison and a fine of as much as $250,000.
“Correctional officers have a legal and moral obligation to ensure that individuals in their custody receive necessary medical care,” said Robert J. Troester, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma. “The six convictions in this case affirm the importance of protecting the constitutional rights of those held in our detention facilities.”
The Kayla Turley case was investigated by the FBI’s Oklahoma City Field Office.
Joshua D. Turley and Kayla Lee Robinson were married in Sawyer, a town in Choctaw County, on April 15, 2022. Ten months later, on Jan. 26, 2023, Joshua Turley filed for divorce, citing “irreconcilable incompatibility.” He filed a motion Aug. 28, 2023, to dismiss his petition because of his wife’s death earlier that month.
Kayla Robinson Turley is survived by a minor son, Kizer Robinson. Turley died intestate; on June 18, 2024, Tulsa County District Judge Kurt Glassco named Kenna Bundy administratrix of her sister’s estate. Bundy’s lawsuit seeks “in excess of $75,000” for the wrongful death of Turley.
Similar incident cost Wagoner Co. taxpayers $13M
Wagoner County residents voted overwhelmingly last year in favor of a sales tax rather than a property tax to pay off a $13 million out-of-court settlement in the death of a diabetic woman who died in the county jail.
If the sales tax proposal had been rejected, the settlement would have been paid off with a property tax assessment collected over a 10-year period.
Angela Lynn Liggans, 41, was booked into the Wagoner County Jail on May 17, 2021, after her arrest on complaints of assault and battery on a police officer, domestic assault, and obstruction.
Liggans – who was “an insulin-dependent Type 1 diabetic” and required daily blood sugar monitoring and insulin injections – died in the jail on June 2, 2021. At various times during those 16 days Liggans reportedly displayed “signs of extreme confusion and even psychosis,” as well as weakness and fatigue and high blood pressure, and “continued to outwardly display bizarre and psychotic behavior…” Liggans’ mother, Sharon Dee Dalton of Tulsa, filed a civil rights lawsuit in Muskogee’s Eastern District federal court on April 27, 2023, alleging negligence, against Wagoner County Sheriff Chris Elliott, two of his deputies, a “medical assistant” who was hired by Elliott to serve as the jail’s “health administrator” despite her “lack of training and limited scope of practice,” and a family medical practitioner from a nearby town.
After entering into mediation, Dalton and the Wagoner County Board of Commissioners reached a $13.5 million out-of-court settlement on Aug. 16, 2024, and the agreement was entered into the court record on Nov. 19, 2024, after Elliott was reelected.
The Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma Self-Insured Group paid $483,156 from the county’s $1 million maximum benefit, leaving county taxpayers on the hook for $13,016,843.
That debt will be retired with a county sales tax of one-fourth of a penny per dollar that went to effect July 1, 2025, and will be levied for 15 years, “or until the debt has been satisfied in full, whichever occurs sooner.”
Reportedly the county borrowed the money from a bank and is repaying the loan with proceeds from the sales tax.
The lawsuit settlement provides that the post-judgment interest rate, which started Jan. 1, 2025, will be 4.96% for the first three years and increase to 6% annually afterward.
Wagoner County levies a sales tax of 0.013% (1.3 cents per dollar). In addition, Wagoner County communities of Wagoner, Coweta, Okay, Porter, and Tullahassee all levy city sales taxes of 0.04% (4 cents per dollar), and the state sales tax is 0.045% (4½ cents per dollar).
During an interview with Tulsa TV Channel 8, Sheriff Elliott said, “It’s fallen squarely on my desk and I’ll carry that load for the county; it is my responsibility to make sure that jail is running accordingly. We had some failures down there. Those people no longer work here,” he said.
The sheriff said his staff at the time, including the former jail administrator, failed to follow protocols. “He clearly failed to follow the medical protocols for medical staff. He clearly failed to follow my ‘fit for confinement’ protocols,” Elliot said.
When Liggans’ death occurred, “I had in this facility a medical doctor who was treating this patient and prescribing medication to that patient,” the sheriff said. “When I did my investigation, come to find out, she never came in and laid eyes on that patient and I had no idea that was going on.”