Evans speaks out about daughter’s death in county jail

By SUSAN SHARP

CAMPBELL COUNTY, TN. (WLAF)- “You are sure my daughter is okay?” Phyllis Evans repeatedly asked the Campbell County Jail staff that question in the days leading up to her daughter, Faith Evans’, death in April.

Faith was not okay. Initially, Phyllis was told her daughter was fine, but she knew something was wrong.

Her daughter was jailed on Tues., April 23, for a probation violation after being caught trying to shoplift at Walmart. On Wednesday, Phyllis went to the jail to put money in her daughter’s commissary account. That night, Faith, her youngest of four children, called her. It was the last time Phyllis spoke to her daughter. 

Faith had a drug addiction. Her mother knew that and suspected her daughter could be in withdrawal. So, when Sunday came and there still was no word from her daughter, Phyllis grew even more concerned. “When Faith was in jail she called like clockwork,” her mother said.

At 6am Monday, the mother placed another call to the jail. She was allegedly told her daughter was detoxing in a maximum-security cell. Not long after the call to the jail, a friend of Phyllis received a call from a Campbell County Jail inmate. The caller said Faith was dead. Immediately, her mother began calling the jail. Despite numerous calls over a three-hour period, Phyllis still had no information. She then went to the Campbell County Jail.

She was met by a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Agent who confirmed Faith had died.

Phyllis knew her daughter didn’t have any preexisting health conditions that would have contributed to her death, so that left her wondering what happened.

A week after Faith’s death, her mother received a phone from Campbell County Sheriff Wayne Barton. “That was the first time I had talked to him,” she said of Barton returning her call.

The conversation yielded little comfort or answers, she said.

Her answers would come weeks later when she received a copy of her daughter’s autopsy report.

Faith died from a “hemorrhagic stroke due to methamphetamine toxicity,” the report said.

A toxicology report revealed that when Faith died, she had Hydroxyzine, Fentanyl, Norfentanyl, Amphetamine and Methamphetamine in her system.

Her mother wants to know how her daughter was able to get drugs in a locked facility.

After talking with her daughter’s friends, she was able to ascertain Faith’s last day of drug use before being jailed. It had been over a week, she said.

Phyllis is certain Faith didn’t die due to any drugs she might have smuggled in for one reason- “If she had drugs, she wouldn’t have waited to use them,” she said. “She would not have waited that long.”

Reports from inside the jail are that Faith was allegedly sick and asked for help in the hours before her death. “She was ignored,” her mother said.

“What happened to Faith…,” she said with tears in her eyes.

Faith had fought drug addiction the majority of her adult life. It started with opioids then progressed to amphetamines then Heroin, her mother said.

Jailing addicts is not the answer. Neither is probation and all the monetary costs that come with it, she said.

“I want people to see what drugs can do to you,” she said of her daughter’s struggles.

Because she is not her daughter’s legal next of kin, Phyllis has little legal recourse. So instead, she wants people to hear Faith’s story and treat it as a cautionary tale.

There needs to be something in this county that is widely available to addicts, she said. They need to be offered help not be punished, she said.

(WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED 7/29/2024-6AM)