A total of 10 suspects have been charged with second-degree murder in connection to the death of Ivor Otieno, who died during the intake process at a state mental health facility on March 6.
According to a report from CNN affiliate WTVR, the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Dinwiddie County said in a news release that three Virginia hospital employees were arrested on March 16 and charged in the death of the 28-year-old Black man. Charges for the three Central State Hospital employees identified as Darian M. Blackwell, 23, Wavie L. Jones, 34, and Sadarius D. Williams, 27, follow the March 14 arrests of seven sheriff’s deputies who also turned themselves in on second-degree murder charges. All three Central State Hospital workers are being held without bond in the Meherrin River Regional Jail in Brunswick County, the commonwealth attorney’s office said. The seven sheriff’s deputies are on administrative leave pending the investigation’s outcome.
Asphyxiation has been identified as a cause of death for Otieno in the preliminary report by the Office of Richmond’s Chief Medical Examiner. In addition to the new arrests, video surveillance footage of Otieno’s death during the intake process at the hospital was reportedly obtained by commonwealth attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill — who claims the footage is a “key element,” of evidence. During a court hearing on March 15, Baskervill said Otieno was held on the ground for 12 minutes by all seven deputies while he was in handcuffs and leg irons. Baskervill claims authorities “smothered him to death,” alleging that his death from asphyxia, was a result of being smothered. At the hearing, Baskervill also accused one of the sheriff’s deputies of kneeling on the neck of Otieno while restraining him during the intake process.
“The criminal information warrants are based on the evidence collected, analyzed and evaluated to-date,” Baskervill said, according to the news release announcing the arrests of the hospital workers.
“A key element of that evidence is the surveillance video from Central State Hospital that captures the intake process. To maintain the integrity of the criminal justice process at this point, I am not able to publicly release the video,” Baskervill added.
Otieno’s family, including his mother, Caroline Ouko, watched the surveillance footage and claims the officials allegedly involved in his death treated her son like an animal.
“My son was treated like a dog, worse than a dog,” Ouko said. “I saw it with my own eyes on the video.”
Otieno was first taken into custody on March 3, after Henrico Police and the county’s Crisis Intervention Team reportedly encountered him while responding to a possible burglary. Authorities then placed Otieno under an emergency custody order, which Virginia law states an individual can be reprimanded under when there is reason to believe they could hurt themselves or others as a result of mental illness. Ouko was reportedly on-site at the time of her son’s arrest and reportedly implored police officers not to be aggressive with him because he was in the midst of a mental health crisis. Otieno was taken to a local hospital for evaluation, at which point, officers claim he became “physically assaultive,” toward them. He was then held on three counts of assault on a law enforcement officer, disorderly conduct in a hospital, and vandalism, according to police.
However, on March 6, three days after he was placed under an emergency custody order, Otieno was transferred from Henrico County Jail West to be admitted to the state-run mental health facility Central State Hospital. According to state police investigators, Otieno became “combative” and was “physically restrained,” during the intake process. He later died at the hospital and Virginia State Police were called to investigate his death at 7:28 p.m. It’s unclear why Otieno was transferred to the facility by deputies, according to the commonwealth attorney’s office.
The local police union, Henrico Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 4, issued a statement on Facebook stating that they “stand behind” the deputies involved in Otieno’s death.
“Policing in America today is difficult, made even more so by the possibility of being criminally charged while performing their duty,” the group said. “The death of Mr. Otierno was tragic, and we express our condolences to his family. We also stand behind the seven accused deputies now charged with murder by the Dinwiddie County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ann Baskervill.”
However, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who compared the video of Otieno’s death to the footage of the death of George Floyd in 2020, claims Ivor did not pose a threat to law enforcement judging by the surveillance footage obtained.
“He, in the videos, (is) never confrontational with them. He is not posing a threat to them. He’s not violent or aggressive with them. You see in the video he is restrained with handcuffs, he has leg irons on, and you see in the majority of the video that he seems to be in between lifelessness and unconsciousness, but yet you see him being restrained so brutally with a knee on his neck,” he said.
Otieno’s family attorney Mark Krudys told CNN that the Kenyan native arrived in the United States at the age of four and was an aspiring Hip Hop artist. Krudys said that Otieno had been taking medication for mental illness but was not able to take the medication while he was in custody.