A New Jersey inmate screamed for help as he was beaten to death inside his prison cell – but his attorney says no one opened the door for nearly two days.
When correction officers finally entered the cell at Northern State Prison in Newark, 28-year-old Melvin Rivas Inoa was dead. An autopsy found he had suffered severe blunt force trauma to his face, head and neck.
Inoa’s cellmate, 29-year-old Abdul J. Bryant, has since been charged with murder, according to court documents.
The killing is now raising questions about supervision inside the facility after investigators said the victim could be heard screaming for help.
The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and the New Jersey Department of Corrections have launched an investigation into the incident.
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by NBC New York, Inoa was last seen alive around 7 p.m. on January 20. His body was not discovered until about 7:05 a.m. on January 22, when correction officers finally opened the cell door.
An inmate who was in a neighboring cell told investigators he heard loud banging and kicking noises coming from the cell and later heard a toilet flushing and a sink running through the night and into the next day, NJ.com reported.
The witness also told investigators Bryant told him that “he assaulted the victim and subsequently ‘washed him up’ to appear he wasn’t injured,” according to the criminal complaint.
Inmates in New Jersey state prisons are not allowed to be confined to their cells for more than 20 hours a day under a 2019 law signed by then-Gov. Phil Murphy.
But Brooke Barnett, an attorney representing Inoa’s family, told NJ.com this rule was ignored – along with the victim’s pleas for help.
“I’ve spoken to other witnesses, and they’ll all come to light, but (Inoa) was begging for his life,” Barnett said. “For two days screaming, banging, the other inmates were banging on the cell doors, telling the officers to help him, to get him out of there and they just did nothing.
“Whether you wanna say that’s murder or conspiracy to commit murder, at a minimum it’s official misconduct.”
Barnett said Inoa and Bryant had been housed in an administrative segregation unit and had been cellmates for less than two weeks.
”They heard my client Melvin screaming for help — asking to save him from death,” Barnett added.
Inoa’s family, who live in the Bronx, told NBC New York that they were devastated to learn he had died just weeks before he was expected to be released. Inoa served about two and a half years on a gun conviction.
”We thought he was protected and come to find out he wasn’t,” his sister, Leslie Rivas Inoa, told NBC. “He would tell my mom, ‘Mommy I am coming home soon.’”
But the family said that Inoa had recently told them that he feared for his safety.
A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections told NBC New York that staff members “are required to conduct formal counts and security checks throughout every shift.”
When asked by NBC New York whether any correction officers had been disciplined, the Department of Corrections said it is cooperating with prosecutors and that all allegations of staff misconduct are documented and investigated.
Northern State Prison’s restrictive housing unit has faced criticism in the past. A 2024 report by the Office of Corrections cited inmate complaints about access to health care, staffing shortages, and problems with heating, cooling and plumbing.
Inoa’s attorney said: “The level of violence that goes on behind those four walls at Northern State Prison isn’t shocking.”
