Messiah Shanks watched a movie on a tablet in his cell at the Oklahoma County Detention Center when, about 1:30 a.m. on April 25, 2025, his cellmate heard someone groaning down the hall.
Shanks didn’t hear it at first, but it got louder. Punches also echoed through the pod on the 12th floor of the jail, and a man moaned. Shanks and his cellmate moved to the door and tried to figure out where the sound was coming from.
They thought it was coming from cell 20. Shanks called the emergency phone line for help…