GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A Gwinnett County jail detainee is dead, and now his family is fighting for answers.
“We just want some answers, that’s all we really want,” Phillip Munroe’s father, Ronald Chesnut, told Channel 2’s Audrey Washington.
Munroe spent a little more than two years inside the Gwinnett County jail awaiting his court appearance on an assault charge.
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But Munroe’s family said while in jail, Munroe’s mental illness grew worse and caused him not to eat.
“I called just about everybody I could think of,” his mother, Maureen Chesnut, said through tears.
He was transferred to a behavioral health facility a couple of times, but never stayed there.
“No treatment plan to restore him to competency was ever developed,” family attorney Akil Secret said.
Secret said Munroe was eventually sent back to jail and placed in a cell by himself.
In January 2025, Secret said a guard found Munroe dead. The medical examiner listed the cause of death as starvation.
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According to the family, Munroe was over 200 pounds when he entered the jail, and was 130 pounds when he was pronounced dead.
The family plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit.
“They had to have seen his deterioration and choose to ignore it. He looked literally like skin and bones,” Secret explained.
Washington reached out to the Gwinnett County government.
“We do not comment on pending or threatened litigation,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
Washington also reached out to the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office, but she did not hear back.
Munroe’s family said they now want the jail records and the GBI report.
“This is about making sure this doesn’t happen to somebody else’s child,” said Maureen Chesnut.
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