ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis former jail guard pleaded guilty Wednesday over her role in a vicious jail beating captured on video.
It’s a video from March 2021, first exposed by Fox 2.
The jailhouse crime was so frightening, it led to charges from both federal and state prosecutors. Demeria Thomas has now pleaded guilty in both cases over the same jail attack.
The crime is seen on the jail video. Then corrections officer Thomas is seen standing over a control panel. She talks to two other inmates who are about to viciously attack a third inmate.
Another camera shows the beating inside the jail cell prosecutors said was designated for special needs inmates.
Medical records indicate the man beaten was later found to have a broken jaw and his teeth knocked out.
The defendant’s mother wrote an impact statement to the court that stated:
“She never looked in or checked on him to see if he was even alive before shutting the door and walking away. He could have been dead.”
The inmate victim is suing Thomas and St. Louis City, for more than $10 million in damages. Attorney Mark Pedroli served Thomas with the lawsuit just before Wednesday’s hearing.
“We also want to know who else did this at the jail, whether or not she did this before at the jail and whether or not her supervisors,” said Pedroli People above her knew that she was doing this at the jail.”
In federal court, Thomas’ attorney said his client worked in a high-stress job surrounded by violent defendants, but the federal judge said he didn’t buy the excuses. He sentenced her to four years in prison and called her ‘depraved.’
Wednesday, the city judge did not sentence her to any additional time, but Thomas left the St. Louis courthouse with two felony convictions for the same case.
She will report for her prison sentence on July 27.
