Charles Faggart, who died while in the custody of the Duval County jail. | Faggart family/Plata Schott Law
Published on April 7, 2026 at 12:33 pm
Free local news and info, in your inbox at 6 a.m. M-F. Sign up for the Jacksonville Today newsletter.
The family of food truck owner Charles Faggart has gone to court seeking answers about his death in the Duval County jail exactly one year ago.
The family filed a complaint Tuesday demanding that Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters and the Sheriff’s Office produce all public records, including video evidence, related to Faggart’s jail treatment, death and investigations into it.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
The complaint came the same day a nighttime vigil is scheduled in front of the Sheriff’s Office to remember the 31-year-old Faggart and demand changes in police policy to avoid future tragedies, organizers said.
The FBI took over a criminal investigation into the death six months ago.
“One year later, his family still has no answers about what occurred while he was in the custody of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office,” family attorney Belkis Plata wrote in a statement accompanied by the legal action. “Despite public records requests made within days of his passing, law enforcement agencies have failed to produce even the most basic information related to his death or the status of any investigation.”
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
Faggart was jailed April 1 of last year on charges of assault and criminal mischief. Six days later, police reports say, Faggart was displaying aggressive, erratic and disruptive behavior.
Police released a report about Faggart’s death a week after he died. Much of it was blacked out to conceal details during the investigation, but a section labeled Suspected Medical Emergency stated: “SEIZURE (WITNESSED).”
The report indicated that the incident started just after 7 a.m. in a sixth floor cellblock as three corrections staff escorted Faggart, wearing a restraint, into his cell dormitory. The report said Faggart was thrashing and pushing and pulling as he was being taken into the cellblock. A sergeant deemed him a threat and ordered that Faggart be put into a restraint chair, the report said.
The jail’s mental health director and a nurse arrived to evaluate him, and he told them he had taken fentanyl, the report said.
About 7:30 p.m., a nurse declared Faggart medically fit to remain in the restraint chair, but a medical issue arose later and he was taken to UF Health Jacksonville about 9 a.m.
“Upon arrival, Charles was unresponsive, in a fatal condition and doctors made note of his bleeding and bruised face,” according to the complaint filed this week. “Charles suffered multiple injuries throughout his body and significant damage to his kidneys and liver. Taser barbs were removed from Charles’s back by hospital staff.”
Faggart ultimately was diagnosed with anoxic brain injury, which occurs when the brain is deprived of all oxygen, the family’s complaint says.
Jail staff disciplined
The Sheriff’s Office disciplined nine jail staffers after the incident. Once the FBI finishes its criminal investigation, the department will start its own investigation into whether any jail staff violated procedures.
Asked this week for an update about their investigation, FBI Jacksonville said it did not have “anything additional to add at this time.”
The Sheriff’s Office would state only that the FBI investigation is “ongoing, and the corrections officers have been administratively reassigned.”
