In only two weeks, Xavier Anthony Tilghman was supposed to come home from the Baltimore City jail after serving a six-month sentence for misdemeanor assault. Instead, the 21-year-old was strangled to death by his teenage cellmate this week, investigators say.
“It still hasn?t hit us yet,” said Tilghman?s aunt, Geraldine Burgess. “We know he?s not coming back. We just can?t be happy. He wasn?t supposed to go out like that.”
Davon Cole, 19, is charged with killing Tilghman, who was serving a six-month sentence for second-degree assault at the Baltimore City Detention Center. Burgess said he was scheduled for release in two weeks. Cole, who is serving a six-month sentence for drug distribution, also was scheduled to be released soon. Now he faces life in prison on a first-degree murder charge.
At about 7:20 p.m. Monday, several correctional officers saw Cole on the floor of his cell with his arms “wrapped tightly armed Tilghman?s neck,” charging documents state.
The officers told Cole to stop choking Tilghman, but Cole refused, investigators said.
The officers entered the cell and pulled Cole off Tilghman, and with medical staff attempted to revive the victim without success, according to charging documents.
He was pronounced “brain dead” at Johns Hopkins Hospital on Tuesday.
“This guy must have had something against Anthony,” Burgess said. “We want to know why he did it. It was a senseless death. What happened should have been avoided.”
Burgess said she feels jail staff could have done more to save her nephew?s life.
“At the hospital, they revived his heart. But he was already brain dead when he got to the hospital. He was already gone. They should have given him medical attention at the jail. If they had done that, he would be here today,” she said.
Cole has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Dec. 18 in Baltimore City District Court.
