OKEECHOBEE — An inmate at the Okeechobee County Jail was reportedly stabbed approximately 10 times by his cellmate. Derrick Levi Clay, 31, was arrested August 7 by OCSO and charged with aggravated battery/inmate on inmate. Bond was set at $100,000.
Friday morning, August 7, Deputy Michael Cauley responded to the jail in reference to the stabbing. When he arrived, he was told by jail staff that inmate John Brighton, 25, had been stabbed by Clay and had been taken to medical.
Brighton reportedly said he had been sleeping on his bunk when he was wakened by his cell mate stabbing him with a shank. He immediately went to the cell gate and began screaming for help. He said he did not know why Clay stabbed him.
Brighton had stab wounds on his chest, both arms and left shoulder.
When questioned, Clay reportedly said, “They got me in a room with this dude. I’m having issues with this dude. He is doing stuff that is not making me sure about him.” He went on to state he believed his cellmate was conspiring with someone downstairs and that they had made a knife. “I’ve been hearing voices sometimes. Things are telling me that he is trying to jump my case.” Clay claimed the shank belonged to Brighton and that he took it out from under Brighton’s pillow and stabbed him with it.
Brighton is in jail after an arrest in May. During a traffic stop, he reportedly aimed a weapon at law enforcement officers and was shot several times and seriously injured.
Clay was arrested in April and charged with second degree murder and robbery after the body of Tohermain Rosier was found lying in the road on Northeast 14th Avenue just north of State Road 70 East. Rosier had a single stab wound in the left side of his chest. Rosier’s mother told law enforcement her son received a phone call from someone and then left the house. When he didn’t return, she went looking for him and found deputies out in the street and was told her son was dead. Surveillance video showed Rosier walking towards State Road 70. Later, a car is seen turning off State Road 70 onto Northeast 14th Avenue. The victim ran up to the car and the passenger door opened. The victim then ran away from the car for a short distance before falling face down on the pavement. A male is observed chasing Rosier to the location where he fell and then kicking him twice in the right side of his rib cage.
Deputies were able to identify the vehicle’s owner through the video surveillance. The driver of the car was identified as Cheyenne Smith, who reportedly told deputies she and Clay had gone to Douglas Park to buy weed. She said a young black male began yelling at them and said he was going to shoot her. Clay told her to stop the car, and he got out to talk to the male. She heard them argue and saw the man run away from the car with Clay chasing him. She claimed she did not see Clay kick the victim.
When Clay was interviewed, he said he did not know anything about a murder and did not know Rosier.
When questioned about stabbing his cellmate, Clay reportedly said Brighton told him he knew Rosier, the murder victim. Clay believed Brighton was plotting revenge with another inmate, and he couldn’t sleep because he thought Brighton would get him while he slept.