MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Five prison guards were charged in the Death of a black man in December who was sprayed with pepper spray, covered his face with a mask and placed in a position to suffocate while in custody in a correctional facility.
The charges announced Friday stem from a series of violent events that occurred at the Jefferson City Correctional Center in December 2023. The deceased man, 38-year-old Othel Moore Jr., was the victim of “a system, pattern and practice of racist and unconstitutional abuse within the Missouri Department of Corrections,” his lawyers said as they filed a wrongful death lawsuit following the indictment of the former guards.
The Missouri Department of Corrections said in a statement that it has cooperated with the Cole County Sheriff’s Department’s investigation and has made policy changes since Moore’s death.
Here you can learn more about Moore’s fate, who he was, who was involved in his death and which restraint system the prison authorities stopped using after this incident.
WHAT HAPPENED
A group of guards from the Department of Corrections’ Emergency Response Team were searching one of the housing units for contraband on Dec. 8, 2023, when the guards entered Moore’s cell, court records state.
After Moore was searched in his cell and stripped down to his boxer shorts, his hands were handcuffed behind his back and he was led outside. Guards ordered him to face the wall. Moore showed no aggression during the process and followed instructions, officials said in a probable cause statement.
While handcuffed just outside his cell door, Moore was sprayed with pepper spray and then placed in a spit hood, leg wraps and a restraint chair, according to a press release from Cole County Prosecutor Locke Thompson.
Moore was then moved to a separate housing unit, where he was left in a locked cell in the hood, bandages and on a chair for 30 minutes, according to Thompson and the probable cause statements. Thompson said several people heard Moore say he couldn’t breathe and the events were recorded on the jail’s video surveillance system.
Moore was eventually taken to a hospital wing and pronounced dead. Thompson said the medical examiner determined the cause of death to be positional asphyxia and ruled his death a homicide.
WHO WAS OTHEL MOORE JR.
Moore, who grew up in St. Louis, was serving a 30-year prison sentence for various charges, including second-degree domestic violence and first-degree robbery.
Oriel Moore, Othel Moore’s sister, said her family never saw her brother outside of prison after his childhood, which added to their grief. He had been looking forward to his release and hoped to open a business and spend more time with family, she said.
WHO WAS RELATED
The indictment charges Justin Leggins, Jacob Case, Aaron Brown and Gregory Varner with one count each of second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree assault. A fifth guard, Bryanne Bradshaw, is charged with aiding and abetting manslaughter.
The Missouri Department of Corrections said it has cooperated with law enforcement’s investigation into Moore’s death and conducted a separate internal investigation. As a result of the investigation, 10 people involved in the incident are no longer employed by the agency or its contractors, the agency said. The former prison warden is among those fired, according to Andrew Stroth, an attorney for Moore’s family.
Thompson said all five defendants are in custody. Multiple calls and messages to numbers for the defendants and possible relatives were not returned. Thompson said Case is the only one who has an attorney so far, but Thompson could not identify the attorney.
DEADLY RESTRAINT
The Missouri Department of Corrections released a statement Friday saying Moore was in a Restraint device designed to prevent injury to himself and others, and that the department no longer uses that system. However, it is unclear whether complications with the restraint system were the primary factor in Moore’s death.
Charles Hammond, CEO of Safe Restraints Inc., the manufacturer of the WRAP The device’s manufacturer said Friday that the prison has been using it since 2021 and that its company also manufactured the cart that allows people restrained in the device to sit upright and be transported – “it’s like sitting in a hammock on wheels.”
He said he had not seen video of the death and could not comment on what happened, but he had learned that prisons in Missouri had suspended the use of WRAP in recent months. He strongly defended WRAP’s track record, saying the restraint system is used frequently and has never caused a death when used properly.
The restraint allows officers to break up fights more quickly and avoid having to restrain combative people face down, which can impede breathing, he said. Hammond said the company’s trainers have flown to Missouri twice in recent years to train prison staff on how to use it properly.
A AP investigation The lethal force measure used by police documented dozens of deaths between 2012 and 2021 in which officers placed a spit mask or hood on someone before their death, but these devices were rarely listed as a cause or contributing factor in the deaths.
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Associated Press writer Ryan J. Foley contributed to this report from Iowa City, Iowa.
