Things to know about the case of Missouri prison guards charged with murder in death of a Black man
MINNEAPOLIS– Five prison guards have been indicted in the December death of a black man who was pepper-sprayed, had his face covered with a mask and was left in a suffocation position while incarcerated in a correctional facility.
The charges, announced Friday, stem from a violent series of events that occurred in December 2023 at the Jefferson City Correctional Center. Othel Moore Jr., 38, the man who died, was the victim of “a system, pattern and practice of racist and unconstitutional abuse in the Missouri Department of Corrections,” his attorneys said in filing a wrongful death lawsuit after the former guards had been arrested. indicted.
The Missouri Department of Corrections said in a statement that it has cooperated with the Cole County Sheriff’s Department’s investigation and has changed its policies since Moore’s death.
Here are a few things you should know about what happened to Moore, who he was, who was involved in his death and the security system that prison officials stopped using after the episode.
WHAT HAPPENED
A group of guards part of the Department of Corrections Emergency Response Team was searching one of the housing units for contraband on Dec. 8, 2023, when the guards broke into Moore’s cell, court documents show.
After Moore was frisked and stripped to his boxers in his cell, he was handcuffed behind his back and led outside. Guards told him to face a wall. Moore showed no aggression during the process and complied with the commands, according to a statement from the officers.
While handcuffed just outside his cell door, Moore was pepper-sprayed and then placed in a spit hood, leg wrap and restraint chair, according to a news 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, wrapped and placed on a chair for 30 minutes, according to Thompson and probable cause affidavits. Thompson said multiple people heard Moore say he couldn’t breathe and that the events were captured on the jail’s video surveillance system.
Moore was eventually taken to a hospital wing and pronounced dead. Thompson said the medical examiner ruled Moore’s cause of death as positional asphyxia, and his death was listed as a homicide.
WHO WAS OTHEL MOORE JR.
Moore, who grew up in St. Louis, was serving a 30-year prison sentence for a series of charges, including second-degree domestic violence and first-degree robbery.
Oriel Moore, Othel Moore’s sister, said her family never had the chance to see her brother outside of prison after his childhood, which added to their heartbreak. He was looking forward to his release, hoping to open a business and spend more time with his family, she said.
WHO WAS INVOLVED?
The indictment charges Justin Leggins, Jacob Case, Aaron Brown and Gregory Varner with one count each of second-degree murder and one count of aiding and abetting second-degree assault. A fifth guard, Bryanne Bradshaw, is charged with aiding and abetting involuntary manslaughter.
The Missouri Department of Corrections said it was cooperating with the law enforcement investigation into Moore’s death and had conducted a separate internal investigation. As a result of the investigation, 10 people involved in the episode are no longer employed by the department or its contractors, the department said. The former prison director 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 associated with the defendants and potential family members have not been returned. Thompson said Case is the only one with an attorney so far, but Thompson could not identify the attorney.
DEADLY RESTRICTION
The Missouri Department of Corrections released a statement Friday saying Moore died in a security device designed to prevent injury to himself and others, and that the department has stopped using that system. But it is unclear whether complications with the restraint device were the main factor in Moore’s death.
Charles Hammond, CEO of Safe Restraints Inc., the maker of the WRAP device, said Friday that the prison has been using it since 2021, and that his company also created the cart that allows people trapped in the device to sit up and be transported — “it’s like being in a hammock on wheels.”
He said he had not seen video of the death and could not comment on what happened, but he has learned that Missouri prisons have paused their use of the WRAP in recent months. He strongly defended the WRAP’s track record, saying the restraint system is commonly used and has never caused a death when used properly.
The restraint allows officers to break up fights more quickly and avoid having to hold 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 officers on the proper use.
A AP research in lethal restraint used by law enforcement documented dozens of deaths between 2012 and 2021 where officers had put a spit mask or hood on someone before they died. But those devices were rarely mentioned 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.