What led to the death of NC inmate John Neville? Here’s a timeline.
John Neville died in 2019 after a medical emergency in the Forsyth County Detention Center.
His cellmate alerted deputies that Neville was having seizures. Over the next two days, Neville’s condition deteriorated because of how he was held by deputies in a jail cell while they responded to his medical episode.
All charges were eventually dropped against the deputies and a nurse.
In a parallel court proceeding, The News & Observer fought as part of a coalition of media outlets for the release of records related to what happened that night.
On Friday, the last of those records were turned over after a judge ordered their release.
Here’s a timeline of what happened to Neville.
A timeline of events leading to Neville’s death
Nov. 1, 2019: A woman accused Neville of pushing her off a front porch and punching her in the face and the back of the head. She went to the Guilford County magistrate’s office and took out a warrant against him, for misdemeanor assault on a female, according to Guilford County Chief Assistant District Attorney Steve Cole and court documents.
Dec. 1, 2019: A Kernersville police officer saw a vehicle broken down on the side of the road and stopped to help. There he encountered a driver who had run out of gas and Neville, her passenger. When he ran Neville’s ID, he saw the active warrant for Neville, the newly released records indicated.
Dec. 1, 2019, 3:01 a.m: Neville is booked into the Forsyth County Detention Center.
Throughout Dec. 1, 2019: The SBI report includes an interview with Neville’s roommate, who indicates Neville seemed fine throughout his first day at the jail. He ate and drank without problems. They talked to one another. Neville told his roommate that he had been drunk at the time of his arrest and may have smoked marijuana. He took naps, and while sleeping he snored heavily and sometimes sounded like he was trying to catch his breath. When they went to bed, Neville took the top bunk and didn’t make any noise that night.
Dec. 2, 2019
3:25 a.m: Neville’s roommate woke to the sound of a bang in his cell. The roommate told the FBI, according to the newly released records, that he turned and saw Neville on the floor shaking and thought he was having a seizure. He asked Neville if he was OK and when Neville didn’t respond he hit an emergency call button.
3:28 a.m: Woodley’s body camera starts as he arrives at Neville’s cell. The rest of the timeline will be taken from Woodley’s video unless otherwise noted. In the cell, Heughins is trying to calm Neville as he comes in and out of consciousness. Several officers from the jail’s special response team are also in the cell.
3:29 a.m: Heughins first notices blood around Neville’s mouth. He’s also seen in the video drooling and sweating profusely.
3:30:13 a.m: Heughins performs a sternal rub on Neville, a painful technique to bring someone back to consciousness. He wakes to at least three officers holding him down and others in the cell.
3:30:34 a.m: Neville loses consciousness again and Heughins performs a second sternal rub. He wakes up in a panic. Police hold him down while Heughins tries to tell Neville he had a seizure and to stay on the ground.
3:32:58 a.m.: Neville hasn’t responded to questions and laid still while his temperature was checked, but his eyes widen as Heughins wraps a blood pressure cuff around his lower right arm. He asks to be let up, but the officers hold him down.
3:33 a.m: Neville begins fighting the deputies off him. He tries to bite one and begins swearing. He’s told he’s not in trouble but is having a medical problem.
3:35 a.m: Deputies use their hands and knees to restrain Neville, who continually asks to be let up. He hallucinates about a woman who isn’t in the room. He asks her to hurry and to open the door for him. He tries to bite deputies again and they call for a transport chair as he curses at them.
3:37 a.m: Deputies call for shackles. Neville calls for his mom several times. Neville’s children, who watched the videos in 2020, said his mother had been dead for years.
3:40 a.m: Deputies put a spit mask on Neville as he continues to shout.
3:42 a.m: Neville is rolled over to be handcuffed. It’s the first time he tells deputies he can’t breathe.
3:45 a.m: Neville is stood up and walked out of the cell to a transport chair. He has a hard time walking out.
3:46-3:51 a.m: Neville is wheeled to a multipurpose room, where deputies stop transport to let Heughins attempt a second time to get Neville’s blood pressure. Neville won’t stop squirming, so Heughins rips the cuff from his arm and gives up. At least 10 deputies watch.
3:54 a.m: Deputies bring Neville, who has fallen asleep, to a single cell and wake him up to walk him inside where they tell him to lie on his stomach on a mat.
3:54:14 a.m: Roussel slams his knee into Neville as he begs police to release his legs from cuffs. “Oh (expletive), my leg,” Neville shouts, in response. Deputies worked to remove the shackles from his legs.
3:56:22 a.m: With the shackles removed from his legs, deputies start working on the handcuffs. A pair of handcuff keys breaks inside the keyhole as deputies try to remove Neville from the restraints.
3:56:52 a.m: Roussel shouts at Neville to settle down. Neville tells Roussel he can’t hear him. He repeats the order to calm down. Neville continues to tell Roussel he can’t breathe. “You’re breathing because you’re talking, you’re yelling and you’re moving,” Roussel shouts back. He’s told to stop resisting.
3:57 a.m. Neville’s shouts become whimpers and he begins to move less.
3:58:20 a.m. Deputies are told to flatten Neville’s legs out so Roussel can attempt to use bolt cutters to remove the handcuffs. He tells them to sit on Neville. The bolt cutter doesn’t work.
4:02:18: Roussel asks Neville if he’s all right. Neville doesn’t answer. He lets out what sounds like a snore and Roussel said, “I’ll take that as a yes.”
4:03:31 a.m: Deputies believe Neville is asleep. Snoring can be heard.
4:04:48 a.m: The second set of bolt cutters arrive.
4:05:53: Neville is released from the handcuffs.
4:06:50 a.m: Deputies work to remove Neville from his jumpsuit. They place him on suicide watch, according to an SBI interview found in the agency’s report.
4:07:58 a.m: A deputy asks whether Neville is breathing.
4:08:15 a.m: Roussel says he can’t tell and asks for Heughins to be brought back in.
4:08:59 a.m. As Heughins and Roussel try to get Neville to respond, an inmate shouts, “You all killed him. You killed him.” and begins to wail.
4:09:19 a.m. Heughins walks out of the cell and Roussel asks, “Are we good?” He then directs deputies how to leave the cell for their safety in case Neville wakes up while they’re walking out and becomes combative again.
4:09:43 a.m: The cell door is shut and Heughins is seen looking through the window at Neville.
4:10:42 a.m: Roussel calls the deputies back.
4:11:15 a.m: Deputies return to the cell and Roussel tells them to secure Neville’s arms and legs.
4:11:46 a.m: Neville moans.
4:12:34 a.m: “Get the AED, I can’t hear a heart rate,” Heughins said.
4:13:22 a.m: CPR begins.
4:13:35 a.m: The AED, or automated external defibrillator machine, says a shock is not advised. While the machine analyzes whether to shock Neville, it’s the first time deputies aren’t holding him down. They resume as soon as the machine says to continue CPR.
4:23:57 a.m: Paramedics arrive.
4:25:27 a.m: Paramedics request they remove Neville from the cell to give them more room to work.
4:31:32 a.m: Inmates begin singing “Amazing Grace,” as paramedics continue to work on Neville.
4:35:11 a.m: A pulse is found after administering epinephrine.
4:42 a.m: He’s wheeled out of the detention center on a stretcher.
5:02 a.m: Neville arrives at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center’s Emergency Room, according to the hospital’s reports released Friday.
6:41 a.m: Neville is admitted to the hospital, reports state.
7:17 a.m: After his heart stops, again — twice — Neville is admitted to the intensive care unit, the report states. Tests would later find that Neville is likely brain dead.
Dec. 4, 2019, 9:22 a.m: Neville dies.
This story was originally published June 17, 2025 at 1:16 PM with the headline "What led to the death of NC inmate John Neville? Here’s a timeline.."
