Jema Schunke was supposed to be transferred to a state facility weeks before she was beaten to death inside the Duval County jail.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville woman was beaten to death inside the Duval County jail, but records show she should not have been there in the first place. A judge had ordered Jema Schunke to be taken to a state mental health hospital a month before she died last year.

Susan Owens remembers the first day she met Jema Schunke.

“We met at the Mission House over in Jax Beach. I started out by wanting to pray with her and I had another friend that we tried to sit down and pray with her, and she got really upset about it, and she didn’t want anything to do with prayer, so she got up and walked away and was saying all kinds of expletives, and I knew right then and there that I was gonna have to look out for her,” Owens said.

It would blossom into a nearly nine-year friendship; Owens often thought of Jema as a sister.

Owens says Schunke struggled with her mental health.

“Yes. And I tried to help her because she was on Medicaid, so she had insurance. She could go to the doctor,” Owens explained.

Owens said Schunke felt her best when she was taking the proper medication, but that did not always happen. Schunke had been arrested a handful of times over the last 10 years; most of the crimes were misdemeanors.

“I always felt good knowing she was warm and clean, but most of the time she was in the lockdown unit where she was in a cell by herself and only out for a period of time. I never had to worry about, I didn’t think, anyway, I never had to worry about anything happening to her,” Owens said.

Schunke was arrested one final time in April of 2025 on three misdemeanor charges.

While in jail, she was also charged with battery in a detention center. A judge found her incompetent to stand trial and ordered her to be sent to a state mental health facility on July 18, 2025.

Schunke died a little over a month later on August 22, 2025.

“I just never ever thought something like that would happen. She wasn’t a fighter either,” Owens said.

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said Schunke was beaten by her cellmate, Virginia Hampton. 

Hampton was later charged with second-degree murder. Her arrest report states the coroner ruled Schunke’s death a homicide because of blunt force injuries.

Schunke should not have been in jail at that time.

Florida law requires inmates who are deemed incompetent to stand trial to be sent to a state mental health facility within 15 days of the judge’s order. Schunke remained in jail 35 days after her court order. A spokesperson for JSO told First Coast News that Schunke was not transferred to the Florida State Hospital because of ‘capacity issues’ at the facility.

Owens was devastated when she got the call.

“They couldn’t give me any answers. No one would give me any answers after that.”

According to JSO, there are currently 43 inmates in the Duval County jail waiting to be transferred to a state facility. In Putnam County, two inmates have been waiting more than 60 days to be transferred to a state facility. Four inmates have been waiting more than four months in Nassau County. In Clay County, one inmate has been waiting more than 100 days for bed space to open at a state facility. Nine inmates are waiting to be transferred in St. Johns County.

Owens hopes Schunke’s death will shine a light on a growing problem.

“She really was like my family and everyone in my circle of friends knew that, too… I loved seeing the woman that she was growing into,” Owens said.