Killing of Irvo Otieno

Last updated

Killing of Irvo Otieno
Irvo Otieno portrait.jpeg
Date
  • March 6, 2023
Time ≈ Tooltip Approximation 4:00 p.m.-7:28 p.m. (EST)
Location Central State Hospital, Dinwiddie County, Virginia, U.S.
Coordinates 37°12′35″N77°27′06″W / 37.20971°N 77.45175°W / 37.20971; -77.45175
DeathsIrvo Otieno
Accused
  • Randy Boyer
  • Dwayne Bramble
  • Jermaine Branch
  • Bradley Disse
  • Tabitha Levere
  • Brandon Rodgers
  • Kaiyell Sanders
  • Darian Blackwell
  • Wavie Jones
  • Sadarius Williams
Charges
[1]

On March 6, 2023, 28-year-old Irvo Otieno died after he was restrained by Henrico County sheriff's deputies and hospital employees at Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, near Petersburg. He was arrested on March 3 for a suspected breaking and entering, and was taken to the hospital three days later after he was found naked in his cell. [2] A total of ten people, seven deputies and three hospital employees, were charged with second-degree murder in connection with Otieno's death. [3]

Contents

People involved

Irvo Otieno ( /aɪvoʊ/ EYE-voh [4] ); referred to as Ivor by his family, [5] was a 28-year-old man born in Kenya. He experienced mental illness during his last year of high school and had previously received mental health care. [6]

The seven Henrico County Sheriff's deputies allegedly involved in his death were identified as Randy Boyer, Dwayne Bramble, Jermaine Branch, Bradley Disse, Tabitha Levere, Brandon Rodgers, and Kaiyell Sanders. The three hospital employees were identified as Darian Blackwell, Wavie Jones, and Sadarius Williams. [1]

Arrest and death

On March 3, police were called to a home in Henrico County for a reported breaking and entering, where a woman told police she believed her home was burglarized. Police arrested Otieno at the scene and placed him under an emergency custody order. He was taken to Parham Doctors' Hospital for an evaluation; during the evaluation, he allegedly became combative towards officers before being transported to Henrico County Jail. [2]

Three days later, on March 6, deputies transported Otieno to Central State Hospital after he was found naked and covered in feces in his cell. During the intake process, Otieno "became combative during the admission process", according to Dinwiddie County Commonwealth's Attorney, Ann Cabell Baskervill. Deputies and hospital employees restrained Otieno, who became unresponsive and died. Deputies and Otieno arrived just before 4 p.m., and Virginia State Police were called to investigate his death around 7:30 p.m. [5] Cabell Baskervill stated that Otieno was held on the ground in handcuffs and leg irons for twelve minutes. She also said that Otieno's death was not reported for three and a half hours, and when it was reported, Otieno's body had been moved, his handcuffs removed and washed, and a call had been made to a funeral home instead of the medical examiner's office. [4] [7]

Investigation and criminal charges

On March 14, seven Henrico County deputies were charged with second-degree murder. [8] Two days later, three hospital employees were also charged with murder. A preliminary autopsy found Otieno's cause of death to be asphyxiation by smothering. [7] On April 3, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia confirmed the death as a homicide and induced by positional and mechanical asphyxia with restraints. [9]

On March 20, The Washington Post obtained and released surveillance videos of Otieno's death. [10] The video shows Otieno being taken into the hospital on March 6 around at 4:16pm in handcuffs and legcuffs and entering the admissions area at 4:19pm. Just before 4:28pm, according to the Washington Post, he "appears to make a movement" and deputies and hospital staff restrain him, with eight people on top of him and others helping to hold him down. At 4:40pm they release him and according to the Washington Post he "appears not to be moving". At 4:41pm he is given an injection and resuscitation efforts start; at 5:48pm a hospital staffer covers his body with a sheet. [10]

The Dinwiddie County grand jury confirmed probable cause for a prosecution on March 21. [11] [12]

In April, the prosecution filed a joinder motion which was rejected the following month for at least two of the accused hospital workers. [13]

In June, the charges against two of the hospital workers were dropped, as their trial had been kept separate from the others and the footage did not provide strong evidence against them. [14] [15]

Aftermath

Otieno's family hired attorney Ben Crump. [16]

The Reverend Al Sharpton delivered Otieno's eulogy at his funeral. [17]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henrico County, Virginia</span> County in Virginia, United States

Henrico County, officially the County of Henrico, is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 334,389 making it the fifth-most populous county in Virginia. Henrico County is included in the Greater Richmond Region. There is no incorporated community within Henrico County; therefore, there is no incorporated county seat either. Laurel, an unincorporated CDP, serves this function.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greater Richmond Transit Company</span>

The Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC) is a local government-owned public service company which based in Richmond, Virginia. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 9,833,200, or about 37,300 per weekday as of the third quarter of 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henrico County Public Schools</span> School system in Virginia

The Henrico County Public Schools school system is a Virginia school division that operates as an independent branch of the Henrico County, Virginia county government and administers public schools in the county. Henrico County Public Schools has five International Baccalaureate schools – John Randolph Tucker High School, Henrico High School, Fairfield Middle School, Tuckahoe Middle School and George H. Moody Middle School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Morva</span> American criminal (1982–2017)

William Charles Morva was an American-Hungarian man convicted of the 2006 shooting deaths of Sheriff's Deputy Corporal Eric Sutphin, 40, and hospital security guard Derrick McFarland, 32, in the town of Blacksburg, Virginia. He was sentenced to death for the crime and was executed on July 6, 2017. Morva was the last inmate to be executed by the Commonwealth of Virginia before capital punishment in the state was abolished on March 24, 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dallas Police Department</span> Dallas, Texas law enforcement agency

The Dallas Police Department, established in 1881, is the principal law enforcement agency serving the city of Dallas, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Morrissey</span> American lawyer and politician (born 1957)

Joseph Dee Morrissey is an American Democratic politician, businessman, and former lawyer who won election to both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly from districts including Richmond or surrounding Henrico County, Virginia. He represented Virginia's 16th Senate district from 2020 to 2024, having been elected during the 2019 election. He represented much of southern Richmond, as well as all of the cities of Petersburg and Hopewell and portions of Chesterfield, Dinwiddie and Prince George counties. He lost the 2023 Democratic primary for his district.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farmville murders</span> 2009 quadruple homicide in Virginia

The Farmville murders occurred in Farmville, Virginia, in September 2009 – the quadruple bludgeoning homicide of Mark Niederbrock, Debra S. Kelley, their daughter Emma Niederbrock and friend Melanie Wells.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Morgan Dana Harrington</span> Murder of American student

Morgan Dana Harrington was a 20-year-old Virginia Tech student who disappeared from the John Paul Jones Arena while attending a Metallica concert at the University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville, Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central State Hospital (Virginia)</span> Hospital in Virginia, United States

Central State Hospital, originally known as the Central Lunatic Asylum, is a psychiatric hospital in Petersburg, Virginia, United States. It was the first institution in the country for "colored persons of unsound mind".

On September 25, 2014, Alton Nolen attacked two employees at the Vaughan Foods food processing plant in Moore, Oklahoma, United States, with a knife. He beheaded Colleen Hufford, and also stabbed another employee, Traci Johnson, who was critically injured. Nolen, whom the plant had fired prior to the attack, was shot and wounded by Vaughan Foods chief operating officer Mark Vaughan. The attack came to national attention due to its gruesome nature, which followed a well-publicized recent series of beheadings carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Natasha J. C. McKenna was a 37-year-old African-American woman who died in Fairfax County, Virginia while in police custody. The catalyst event, extraction from her cell and being tasered while shackled, was captured on the video of the Fairfax County jail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Derek Chauvin</span> American murderer and former police officer (born 1976)

Derek Michael Chauvin is an American former police officer who murdered George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. On May 25, 2020, Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for about nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down on the street, calling out "I can't breathe", during an arrest made with three other officers. Chauvin was dismissed by the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) on May 26 and arrested on May 29. The murder set off a series of protests in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, across the United States and around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Floyd protests in Richmond, Virginia</span> 2020 civil unrest after the murder of George Floyd

Richmond, Virginia, experienced a series of riots in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. Richmond was the first city in the Southeastern United States to see rioting following Floyd's murder. Richmond, formerly the capital of the short-lived Confederate States of America, saw much arson and vandalism to monuments connected with that polity, particularly along Monument Avenue.

Shannon Leigh Taylor is an American attorney and the incumbent Commonwealth's Attorney for Henrico County, Virginia. A graduate of the University of Virginia and the University of Richmond School of Law. In 2011, she announced her campaign for the 2011 Henrico County Commonwealth's Attorney election, winning against Bill Janis and Matthew Geary, and subsequently being reelected in 2015, 2019, and 2023.

Eurie Martin was a 58-year-old mentally ill African-American man killed by three Washington County, Georgia sheriff's deputies, on the evening of July 7, 2017.

The jail escape of Casey White took place on April 29, 2022, when White, who was awaiting trial in a capital murder case, escaped the Lauderdale County Jail in Florence, Alabama, United States. Corrections officer Vicky White engineered and facilitated the escape by taking Casey in a car to what she claimed to her coworkers was a scheduled mental health evaluation at the courthouse. The manhunt for the pair was widely covered by American media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 University of Virginia shooting</span> Mass shooting in Charlottesville, Virginia

On the night of November 13, 2022, a mass shooting took place at the University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which three people were killed and two others were injured. Four of the victims, including the three who died, were members of the UVA football team. The perpetrator, 22-year-old Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., was later taken into custody and charged with three counts of second-degree murder, as well as three counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony. On November 20, 2024, Jones pleaded guilty in the shooting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilbert Lee Evans</span> Executed American inmate from Virginia (1946–1990)

Wilbert Lee Evans was an American convict who was executed in Virginia's electric chair for the murder of 47-year-old Deputy Sheriff William Gene Truesdale in Alexandria, Virginia. Truesdale's murder occurred in 1981 during Evans's attempted escape from custody, as Evans was accused of separate crimes in North Carolina and had been temporarily transported to Virginia to testify in another man's extradition hearing there.

References

  1. 1 2 Treisman, Rachel (March 17, 2023). "7 deputies and 3 others face murder charges in a Black man's death at mental hospital". NPR. Archived from the original on March 16, 2023. Retrieved March 17, 2023.
  2. 1 2 Montilla, Desiree (March 16, 2023). "'This was a mental health crisis': Family seeks answers in death of Irvo Otieno". NBC 12. Archived from the original on March 18, 2023. Retrieved March 17, 2023.
  3. ↑ Planas, Antonio; Helsel, Phil (March 16, 2023). "Video of Virginia man who died at hospital shows 'absolute brutality' by deputies, family says". NBC News. Archived from the original on March 18, 2023. Retrieved March 17, 2023.
  4. 1 2 Alamasy, Steve (March 17, 2023). "'I've never seen anything like this,' prosecutor says of video showing death of a 28-year-old man at a mental health facility. Here's what we know". CNN. Archived from the original on March 17, 2023. Retrieved March 17, 2023.
  5. 1 2 Rankin, Sarah (March 14, 2023). "Virginia deputies charged in man's death at mental hospital". Associated Press. Archived from the original on March 18, 2023. Retrieved March 17, 2023.
  6. ↑ Finley, Ben (March 16, 2023). "Mother: Irvo Otieno was 'brilliant and creative and bright'". Associated Press. Archived from the original on March 17, 2023. Retrieved March 17, 2023.
  7. 1 2 El-Bawab, Nadine; Peterson, Beatrice (March 16, 2023). "7 Virginia deputies, 3 hospital employees charged with murder after inmate held down for 12 minutes: Prosecutor". ABC News. Archived from the original on March 16, 2023. Retrieved March 17, 2023.
  8. ↑ "7 deputies charged with murder in the death of Black mental health patient". WCSC 15. The Associated Press. March 16, 2023. Archived from the original on March 18, 2023. Retrieved March 17, 2023.
  9. ↑ "Irvo Otieno death: Autopsy finds he suffocated as deputies restrained him". npr.org . Archived from the original on April 10, 2023. Retrieved April 10, 2023.
  10. 1 2 Rizzo, Salvador; Vozzella, Laura; Oakford, Samuel (March 20, 2023). "Video shows Va. deputies pile on top of Irvo Otieno before his death". Washington Post . ISSN   0190-8286. Archived from the original on March 21, 2023. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  11. ↑ "What to expect when a Dinwiddie grand jury meets to discuss death of Irvo Otieno". CBS 6 News Richmond WTVR. March 20, 2023. Archived from the original on March 21, 2023. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  12. ↑ "Grand Jury confirms indictment of 10 in death of Irvo Otieno". March 21, 2023. Archived from the original on March 22, 2023. Retrieved March 22, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  13. ↑ "Judge rejects attempt for single trial for 10 charged in Irvo Otieno death". wtvr.com. May 11, 2023. Archived from the original on May 17, 2023. Retrieved May 17, 2023.
  14. ↑ "2 accused in Irvo Otieno killing have charges dropped". richmond.com . June 20, 2023. Archived from the original on June 21, 2023. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
  15. ↑ "Family, defense attorneys weigh in after murder charges in connection to death of Irvo Otieno were downgraded". May 30, 2024.
  16. ↑ Bowes, Mark (March 16, 2023). "Irvo Otieno's mother speaks out about his death at hospital: 'My son was tortured.'". Richmond Times-Dispatch. Archived from the original on March 17, 2023. Retrieved March 17, 2023.
  17. ↑ Schwaner, Jeff; Higgins, Kristi K.; Atkinson, Bill (March 29, 2023). "Blog: what happened at Irvo Otieno funeral". News Leader. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.