Court Records Reveal Alabama DOC Guard Ignored Stabbed Prisoner
by Michael Dean Thompson
Former Sergeant J. Corbin Douglas Tunstall was being dismissed from the Alabama Department of Corrections (DOC) when he filed his resignation in February 2022. His subsequent lawsuit against DOC for racial discrimination revealed an utter disregard by guards and medical staff as a stabbing victim, prisoner Kenneth Gilchrist, lay dying on a barbershop floor.
Guard Edward Martin was assigned to work a housing unit and witnessed an altercation between Gilchrist and another prisoner after Gilchrist had been behaving erratically the whole night. An autopsy later found Gilchrist had either amphetamines or methamphetamines in his system. He had also suffered from a stabbing that had punctured his left lung.
Martin radioed Tunstall, notifying him that a wheelchair was needed. The wheelchair came to the unit, but Tunstall and Shaun Mechalske, the senior sergeant on duty, debated whether to take Gilchrist to the Health Care Unit (HCU). Martin’s urging led to Gilchrist being wheeled down to the HCU by another prisoner with Tunstall escorting them. In later interviews by DOC’s Law Enforcement Services Division (LESD), Martin testified that he had believed Gilchrist needed to be taken to the HCU, though the court record did not elaborate as to why he had the belief.
At the HCU door, Gilchrist could be seen on video falling out of the wheelchair. Cameras captured video of a nurse passing Gilchrist without stopping to offer any assistance. Later, Tunstall testified to investigators that the patient had “refused” to go in. A nurse at the HCU informed the sergeant that the victim needed to be brought in, but Tunstall demurred, opting to wait until Gilchrist “calmed down.” He instead had Gilchrist wheeled into the barbershop across the hall from the Shift Office where Mechalske was stationed.
A large window in the barbershop apparently allowed the Shift Office a direct view as Gilchrist suffered through labored breathing, thrashed, and died over the following hour. Several times, Martin returned in order to convince the guards to have Gilchrist examined and was able to see the man lying on the floor in the barbershop. At least three prisoners also stopped to watch, one of whom was seated in the hallway. At one point, his thrashing became so severe that he injured his mouth bashing it on the wall, which was reported by a watching prisoner.
Mechalske responded by having Gilchrist moved to the center of the barbershop floor. Video captured from the barbershop shows Gilchrist stopped moving after lying on the floor “without meaningful assistance for approximately nineteen minutes and twenty-three seconds” and it was another 13 minutes before Mechalske attempted to “rouse” him by tapping his shoes and shoulder. Mechalske claims that Gilchrist was breathing in the barbershop, though the stabbing victim had passed away by the time he arrived at the HCU.
Martin was the only one who seemed responsive to Gilchrist’s plight. He even went to the shift lieutenant for help, though the court’s opinion fails to document that response. A stab wound that punctures a lung would seem to be a substantial source of blood, yet Mechalske denied seeing any blood to the LESD investigators. When he was shown blood on video, he replied he “assumed any blood was from Inmate Gilchrist’s face and did not investigate further.”
Both Tunstall and Mechalske had standing orders not to place prisoners in the barbershop after an incident. They also violated policy by not admitting the stabbing victim to the HCU, irrespective of the victim’s intoxication.
Tunstall and Mechalske both were dismissed. Yet, through it all, former DOC Sergeant Tunstall feels he is the victim. He did nothing wrong, he told LESD investigators. After all, “placing inmates in the barbershop was a common practice.” See: Tunstall v. Alabama Dept. of Corrections, 2026 U.S. DIST LEXIS 93138 (N.D. Ala. Apr, 2026).
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Related legal case
Tunstall v. Alabama Dept. of Corrections
| Year | 2026 |
|---|---|
| Cite | 2026 U.S. DIST LEXIS 93138 (N.D. Ala. Apr, 2026) |
| Level | District Court |