A report this week revealed that charges have been dropped against a man who filmed himself beating 75-year-old Army veteran Norman Bledsoe in a Detroit, Michigan nursing home in 2020. The elderly victim died weeks after the assault.
Video of the vicious beating went viral, and Hayden was subsequently charged with two counts of assault with intent to do great bodily harm and larceny, according to ABC 7. Authorities later determined that Hayden was incompetent and dropped all charges against him. He now lives in a psychiatric hospital near Kalamazoo.
“He shouldn’t be in prison,” said Marty Hayden, the father of attacker Jadon Hayden, according to ABC 7.
Marty Hayden said sending his son to jail would have only made his mental health problems worse.
“So the system is going to fail him again,” Marty Hayden argued. “He’s not going to be rehabilitated.”
Bledsoe was a resident at Westwood Nursing Center when he was attacked by Hayden, 20, on May 10, 2020, just before 7 p.m. Hayden had tested positive for COVID-19 and was sent to the nursing home to recover due to a Michigan state law. Hayden, who was sharing a room with his victim at the time, told nursing staff that Bledsoe had sustained injuries by falling out of bed.
Hayden then reportedly shared the video of the beating online and bragged about stealing his victim’s credit cards.
“The alleged actions of this defendant are truly and uniquely disturbing,” said Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy at the time. “We must be able to trust our loved ones in specialty care facilities. I truly hope that the facts of this case are one of a kind.”
Marty Hayden said his son had contacted him at the time to complain that he was hearing voices and alert his father that people were trying to kill him.
“He was in crisis mode,” Marty Hayden said, adding that his son shouldn’t have been placed in a nursing home to begin with.
“They dropped the ball. Why would they put my child in a nursing home,” said Marty Hayden, noting that his son’s record should have shown a history of aggressive behavior and issues with schizophrenia.
“They should have known,” said Jadon Hayden’s attorney Brian Berry. “I think the facility had an idea of who Jadon was and what type of treatment he needed. I think they knew, or had a history, that he was schizophrenic and it should have been handled differently.”
