BATON ROUGE — The family of Maressa Mays wants answers as to what happened during a brief jail stint that ended in her death last month.

"We want justice, and no, she wasn't perfect, but we still want justice. That was our baby," her father said. 

Throughout her adult life, the 34-year-old often found herself in the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison, a pre-trial facility, but her family says she was trying to put all that behind her and be a good mom for her daughter.

"She had a heart of gold. She would just give and give. She loved everybody," her mother, Monica Lafayette, said. 

However, that opportunity for change never came.

On July 14, a judge sent Maressa to jail for failing to appear in court on battery charges.

Five days later, she was dead. 

"They found her on her back, with her eyes open, and she was clasping at her chest like her chest was hurting her," Monica said three homicide detectives who visited her home on the morning of July 19 told her. 

But they could not tell her how Maressa died.

"I asked what happened they say we're not sure. We don't know at this point," she said.

Just a day or so before, Monica received a troubling phone call.

"I got a call from an inmate in the parish prison and told me that they were beating my child. She was asking for help. She had pain in her chest. They refused to call the nurse for her. The deputy or deputies were telling her, 'shut up, b, shut up b' you know, refusing service to her," Lafayette said. 

According to Monica, Maressa has a blood clot in her stomach as well as heart problems. She also had HIV, and the reason she was in jail was that she spat on a nurse during a trip to the emergency room in 2023. (According to the CDC, HIV cannot be transmitted through saliva.)

These conditions were listed in her inmate paperwork.

Maressa had been complaining about chest pain for at least a day before her death and never received medical attention.

"Why wouldn't you call the nurse or a doctor? Why wouldn't you call EMS? Why not give her medical attention?" she said. 

According to sources, officers are supposed to make rounds every 20 to 30 minutes, if not more frequently.
When Maressa's body was found, rigor mortis had already set in, which means she had likely been dead for a few hours.

Additionally, when Monica finally got to see her daughter's body, she noticed something else troubling.

"She had bruises on her face. Her eyes were swollen. You could tell she was beaten. Her fingernails was very damaged," she said.

According to the sheriff's office, Maressa's cause and manner of death are pending full toxicology results. The coroner noted that her urine tested positive for marijuana and opioids, but her death has not been ruled an overdose.

"You all are in that jail, you're running that jail. Who gave her those drugs? What deputies are bringing those drugs in there? That's what I want to know."

For Maressa's family, what happened to her is abundantly clear.

"Y'all killed my baby. That's what y'all did. Y'all murdered her. Y'all took her away from here."

Because her death is under investigation, the sheriff's office was not able to answer questions.