By Summer Ballentine and Michael Goldberg
The Associated Press
COLUMBIA, Missouri (AP) — Four Missouri prison guards were charged with murder and a fifth with aiding and abetting involuntary manslaughter on June 28. The killing stemmed from a complaint filed June 28. In December, a black man died after being pepper-sprayed, his face covered with a mask and left in a position where he suffocated while in custody at a correctional facility.
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 38-year-old Othel Moore Jr. was pepper-sprayed twice 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 testimony. Thompson said several people heard him say he couldn’t breathe.
Moore was eventually taken to a hospital wing and pronounced dead. Thompson said the medical examiner determined Moore’s cause of death was positional asphyxia and his death was ruled a homicide. He confirmed the events were recorded by the prison’s video surveillance system.
“After sitting down and reviewing all the evidence, dozens and dozens of interviews and all the reports, we came to the conclusion that charges should be brought,” Thompson told the Associated Press.
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.
According to Thompson, those accused of murder face ten to 30 years in prison.
Thompson said all five defendants are incarcerated. Multiple calls to numbers for the defendants and possible relatives were not returned June 28. Thompson said Case is the only one so far who has an attorney, but Thompson could not identify the attorney. A voicemail seeking comment from the correctional officers’ union was not immediately returned June 28.
Andrew Stroth, an attorney for Moore’s family, said Moore was bleeding from his ears and nose.
“There is a system, a pattern and a practice of racist and unconstitutional abuse in the Missouri Department of Corrections and particularly in the Jefferson City Correction Center,” Stroth said, adding, “It’s George Floyd 3.0 in a prison.”
After Moore was searched in his cell by other guards for contraband and stripped down to his boxer shorts, his hands were handcuffed behind his back and he was led outside, according to affidavits filed by Cole County Sheriff’s detectives.
Moore was told to be quiet, and when he asked why, Leggins sprayed his face with pepper spray, affidavits say.
“During a subsequent interview with Leggins, he stated that he used his pepper spray on the victim because he did not follow orders to be quiet,” a detective wrote in an affidavit. “He then stated that he felt threatened because the victim turned toward him and ‘stepped’ or lunged at him.”
But investigators wrote in affidavits that the video showed Moore only turning his head to speak.
Another officer, Case, sprayed Moore in the face a second time because he said he was disobeying, according to affidavits. The officers then handcuffed Moore’s legs with what’s known as a WRAP system.
Officers said they then put a spit mask on him because he spit on them, investigators said. However, other coworkers said Moore spat pepper spray from his mouth, affidavits say.
According to detectives, several officers heard Moore’s cries for help after the mask was placed on him, and one heard Moore say he had asthma.
Moore was then taken to another cell and was not examined for 20 minutes, according to investigators. Corrections staff did not examine Moore or provide him with medical attention until he was unresponsive, officials wrote.
Moore did not show any aggression during the process and followed instructions, affidavits say.
Attorneys for Moore’s mother and sister filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the officers and the Department of Corrections on June 28.
Attorneys for the Moore family described the Corrections Emergency Response Team that dealt with Moore in a copy of the complaint obtained by AP as “a group that uses coercive measures to brutalize, intimidate and threaten inmates.”
The lawsuit describes Moore’s death as part of a “systematic practice of scaremongering, infliction of pain and intimidation tactics.”
The Missouri Department of Corrections released a statement on June 28 saying Moore died in a restraint system designed to prevent injury to himself and others, and the agency no longer uses that system.
The Department of Corrections also stated that following the completion of the criminal investigation and its own internal review, 10 of the people involved in the incident “are no longer employed by the department or its contractors.”
The department said it “will not tolerate any conduct or conditions that endanger the well-being of Missourians working or living in our facilities. The department has begun implementing body-worn cameras in detention centers at maximum security prisons, starting with Jefferson City Correctional Center, to strengthen both security and accountability.”
Oriel Moore, Othel Moore’s sister, said her family never saw Othel Moore outside of prison after his childhood, which added to their grief.
“He’s not going to be able to live his life. He doesn’t even know what it means to be a grown man because he’s been stuck there since he was a child,” Moore said. “He had plans. He wanted to be a productive member of society. He’s important. His life is important.”
Moore, who grew up in St. Louis, served a 30-year prison sentence for various charges.
An AP investigation into police lethal force documented dozens of deaths between 2012 and 2021 in which officers placed a spit mask or hood on someone before killing them. 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, and researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed from New York.
