According to Irvo’s family, he was treated like a dog by the seven deputies.
PHOTO BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
Seven deputy sheriffs in Virginia have been charged with second-degree murder over the death of a man in custody.
Irvo Otieno, a 28-year-old black man, died on March 6 while being transferred from a jail to a mental health facility.
Although Mr. Otieno’s cause of death has yet to be determined by medical examiners, prosecutors believed that the deputy sheriffs choked Otieno during the transfer.
Dinwiddie County Commonwealth’s lawyer, Ann Cabell Baskervill, testified in court on Wednesday that his hands and legs were cuffed, and he was held on the ground for 12 minutes by all seven Henrico County deputy sheriffs.
“They smothered him to death,” Baskervill said, according to a local ABC News report. “He died of asphyxia due to being smothered.”
Prosecutors stated that Otieno was “combative” before he was restrained.
According to Baskervill, the incident was captured on video that shows “deliberate and cruel” treatment.
Prosecutors named the seven deputies as Randy Joseph Boyer, 57; Dwayne Alan Bramble, 37; Jermaine Lavar Branch, 45; Bradley Thomas Disse, 43; Tabitha Renee Levere, 50; Brandon Edwards Rodgers, 48, and Kaiyell Dajour Sanders, 30.
Mr. Otieno’s family’s lawyer, Mark Kurdys, told CNN they were “grief-stricken after learning of the brutal nature of Ivor’s death and his inhumane treatment in the hours preceding his death.”
On March 21, all seven deputies are scheduled to appear before a grand jury. RZSP/Expat Media
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