Man in DOC custody dies in Bellevue jail ward
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Roy Savage, 51, died inside a Bellevue Hospital jail ward on Friday, March 22, 2024. AP file photo by Seth Wenig
By Jacob Kaye
A man being held in a Bellevue Hospital jail ward awaiting a new trial after winning an appeal of his 2018 murder conviction died over the weekend, according to the Department of Correction.
Roy Savage, 51, who was being detained at the hospital while undergoing care for an unspecified long-term illness, died on Friday night. The Department of Correction, which notified members of the media of Savage’s death on Saturday, did not specify how the detainee died.
Savage is the third person to die in DOC custody this year and the 31st person to die in custody of the troubled agency since Mayor Eric Adams first took office at the start of 2022. He’s also the third person to die while the DOC has been under the leadership of Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie, who the Adams recently tapped to turn the agency and its dangerous jail complex on Rikers Island around and to stave off an attempt by federal prosecutors and attorneys with the Legal Aid Society to strip the city of its control over Rikers.
“On behalf of the New York City Department of Correction, we extend our condolences to the loved ones of the deceased,” the commissioner said in a brief statement on Saturday.
Savage had been in DOC custody for around three and a half months, first being put in the city’s detention on Nov. 30, 2023. He previously was being held in a state prison hospital. Savage spent the entirety of his time in DOC custody inside Bellevue Hospital.
The reason for Savage’s transfer was his successful appeal of his 2018 murder conviction.
In May 2016, Savage called the police and told a 911 operator that two people had broken into his home in the Bronx and attacked both him and his wife – who would later be pronounced dead – with a knife.
After being interrogated by detectives, Savage said that he had concocted the story about the home invasion to cover up for the fact that he had stabbed his wife to death after she attacked him during a fight.
He also allegedly told detectives that he had taken the knife and hidden it in a nearby parking lot before calling 911. Police later found the knife in the area Savage had told them it was.
Savage was convicted of his wife’s murder in 2018 and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
But attorneys with the Legal Aid Society representing Savage in his appeal, said that police officers didn’t properly explain the Bronx man’s Miranda rights prior to his interrogation.
According to his appeal, Savage was told that whatever it was he said to police would “not necessarily” be used against him in court. Detectives also encouraged him to confess to the murder as a way to appear more sympathetic to a jury, the appeal claimed.
A panel of judges in the Appellate Division, First Department ruled in Savage’s favor last year, ordering the Bronx DA to either retry Savage, drop the case or appeal the appellate court’s decision. The DA’s office was attempting to appeal the ruling at the time of Savage’s death.
Darren Mack, the co-director of Freedom Agenda, railed against the DOC, prosecutors and the courts for detaining Savage despite his illness.
“No one should die in confinement,” Mack said. “Clearly there is no public safety justification for keeping someone in DOC custody when they are so sick that they need long-term hospitalization.”
“The fact that Roy Savage was not granted release while his appeal was pending is yet another symbol of the callous cruelty of prosecutors, judges, and our entire criminal legal system,” he added. “When our state shamefully has the third highest number of wrongful convictions in the nation, this is a tragic reminder of why the presumption of innocence is so important.”
Savage’s death comes around two months after 30-year-old Manuel Luna was found unresponsive in his cell by officers on Rikers Island after he had suffered an apparent medical crisis.
The detainee, who had been held on Rikers Island on $25,000 cash bail for robbery charges since Oct. 5, was found in the cell inside the George R. Vierno Center by corrections officers at 8:47 p.m. on Jan. 19.
Medical staff were called to the cell and provided emergency aid to Luna after arriving, according to the Department of Correction. Luna was pronounced dead around a half hour later.
Around three weeks prior, 43-year-old Chima Williams became the first person to die on Rikers Island in 2024.
Officials said Williams was playing a game of basketball with his fellow detainees on Jan. 4 on Rikers Island when he suddenly collapsed.
He was pronounced dead a short time later.
The cause of both Luna and Williams’ deaths have yet to be determined.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Savage was awaiting the outcome of the appeal of his murder conviction at the time of his death. That is incorrect. An appellate court last year ruled in Savage’s favor, a decision the Bronx district attorney’s office was in the process of appealing at the time of Savage’s death.
