After a Detroit man viciously attacked a 75-year-old veteran in a nursing home while videoing the horrific event, the elderly man was pronounced dead two months later. The attacker has since learned his fate.
It is hard to forget the images from the viral video of Jadon Hayden pummeling an elderly man in a nursing home. That elderly man was a veteran, later identified as Norman Bledsoe. Hayden had been sent to the nursing home because he had tested positive for COVID-19 and was part of a Michigan health officials’ policy that sent some COVID-positive patients to quarantine in area nursing homes.
The video of the assault on Bledsoe was very graphic and disturbing. “See this b–ch -ss n—-r here?” the suspect said, grabbing the camera to show the victim’s bloodied face. “Get the f–k off my bed, n—-r.” The suspect paused momentarily to wipe the elderly man’s blood off with a white sheet. “F–k wrong with you?” Hayden asked just before the video ended.
The Army veteran died two months after the horrific attack, leaving many to question whether the beating played a large part in his death. “His eating habits went downhill after (the assault), and he lost quite a bit of weight,” Norman Bledsoe’s nephew, Kevin Bledsoe, told The Detriot News. Norman Bledsoe suffered four broken fingers, broken ribs, and a broken jaw from the attack, and the attack even got a rebuke from former President Donald Trump in the White House.
At the time of his arrest, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office said Hayden was charged with two counts of assault, larceny, and stealing a financial transaction device. After years of waiting to hear when the trial would start against Hayden, the court decided to dismiss all charges.
Marty Hayden, the father of Jadon Hayden, said his son is autistic, suffers from schizophrenia, and that he has a history of assaultive behavior, WXYZ reported. The court claimed they found Hayden incompetent to stand trial. “He shouldn’t be in prison,” Jadon Hayden’s father said, adding that if his son had been convicted and sent to prison, it would have only worsened his mental health issues.
Kevin Bledsoe didn’t have kind words for his uncle’s attacker at the time of the assault. “We (going to) crush you like a grape. It’s only a matter of time. It’s only a matter of time,” the victim’s nephew declared. It’s unclear if the family feels differently now, after learning that Hayden has been admitted into the nursing facility thanks to Michigan’s policy, and many blame Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for the horrendous event.
In the case of Jadon Hayden, the prosecutors made sure the court dismissed his case without prejudice, which means they can bring charges at a later date. If Hayden steps out of line and becomes a danger to the public again, they can reissue the charges. Meanwhile, the victim’s family has filed a lawsuit against the nursing home, which many argue should have known better than to place a schizophrenic young man in the same room as an elderly patient.
That may be of little comfort to the family of Norman Bledsoe, who had to endure watching their loved one suffer abuse and then lose his life a short time later. While no one wants to see a seriously mentally ill individual who has no recollection or control of his actions go to prison, neither does society condone using the insanity defense if the person truly understands right from wrong. What we can agree on is that the nursing home, as well as the Michigan health officials who enacted a policy that allowed this to happen, should have known better.