BRADLEY COUNTY – An investigation by special agents with the Drug Investigation Division of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, along with investigators with the office of the 10th Judicial District Attorney General, has resulted in the indictment of two Cleveland men, charged in the death of an inmate at the Bradley County jail.
On July 10, 2023, agents began investigating the death of Eric Means (DOB 10/17/1992), who was found unresponsive in his cell. It was ultimately determined that Means died of a fentanyl overdose. During the course of the investigation, agents developed information that Jonathan Bankston, who was arrested on or around July 9th, was able to bring into the facility a quantity of fentanyl pills and was selling them inside the jail. The investigation further revealed that Jonathan Hilliard, who was working as a trusty inside the jail, had taken one of those pills from Bankston and provided it to Means.
The Bradley County Grand Jury returned indictments charging Jonathan Eric Bankston (DOB 01/29/1988) and Jonathan Bryan Hilliard (04/21/1992) each with one count of Manufacture, Sale or Delivery of Schedule II Drug, Schedule II Drug in a Penal Institution, and Second Degree Murder. Hilliard, who was already incarcerated in the Bradley County Jail, was served with the indictment, and Bankston was arrested Tuesday night and booked into the Bradley County Jail.
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