Seven law enforcement officers and three hospital employeeshave been charged with second-degree murder over the death of a Black man at a state psychiatric hospital last week, according to a Virginia prosecutor. Irvo Noel Otieno, 28, was taken into emergency custody on March 3 after experiencing mental health distress.

He spent three days in a local jail in Henrico County, south of Richmond, Va., where his family's lawyer says he was "brutalized" by officers — including being pepper sprayed, stripped naked and deprived of his medications — before being transferred to Central State Hospital, a state-run mental facility in Dinwiddie County.

Otieno was restrained with handcuffs and leg shackles throughout the hospital intake process, according to Dinwiddie County Commonwealth's Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill. In court on Wednesday, she said videos show that seven sheriff's deputies held him on the ground for some 12 minutes. "They smothered him to death," she said. "He died of asphyxia due to being smothered."

 The video shows "deliberate and cruel" treatment, said Baskervill, who filed a criminal information charge — a way of beginning criminal proceedings without needing a grand jury's vote — against the deputies.

In a statement shared with NPR, Baskervill described that as a rare but necessary step. "This legal tactic is for the purpose of protecting other Henrico County jail residents," she said. "It allows for a justified and immediate removal of these seven individuals from their current capacities."

Baskervill's office named the deputies as Randy Joseph Boyer, 57; Dwayne Alan Bramble, 37; Jermaine Lavar Branch, 45; Bradley Thomas Disse, 43; Tabitha Renee Levere, 50; Brandon Edwards Rodgers, 48; and Kaiyell Dajour Sanders, 30.

They were placed on administrative leave, pending the outcome of the case, Henrico County Sheriff Alisa Gregory said on Tuesday. They were arrested — each facing one felony charge of second-degree murder — and turned themselves into state police that same day.

On Thursday, Baskervill's office said three employees of Central State Hospital had also been charged with second-degree murder in the case, bringing the total number of arrests to 10. It is not clear what jobs they held at the facility.They are Darian M. Blackwell, 23; Wavie L. Jones, 34 and Sadarius D. Williams, 27.

Baskervill said Thursday that the case will go before a grand jury next week "for a final determination of charges going forward."

"The criminal information warrants are based on the evidence collected, analyzed and evaluated to-date," she added. "A key element of that evidence is the surveillance video from Central State Hospital that captures the intake process."

The sheriff's office says it is cooperating with a Virginia State Police investigation into the incident, as well as conducting its own independent review. "The events of March 6, at their core, represent a tragedy because Mr. Otieno's life was lost," Gregory said. "This loss is felt by not only those close to him but our entire community."

Otieno's family is being represented by civil rights attorney Mark Krudys, who is also working with Ben Crump on the case. Krudys tells NPR they expect the video of Otieno's death will be made public at some point, likely early next week — though Baskervill said on Thursday that "to maintain the integrity of the criminal justice process at this point, I am not able to publicly release the video."

In the meantime, he says he'd like those learning about the case to focus on the person at the center of it. Otieno's family, which he describes as close-knit, moved to the U.S. from Kenya when he was 4 years old. He was a standout athlete on his high school basketball and football teams, went to college for some time and was pursuing a career in music.

Source: NPR

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