Four Missouri prison guards were charged with murder, and a fifth with accessory to involuntary manslaughter, in the December death of a Black man who was pepper sprayed, had his face covered with a mask and was left in a position that caused him to suffocate while in custody, reports the Associated Press. A group of guards in the Department of Corrections Emergency Response Team was sweeping one of the housing units for contraband on Dec. 8, 2023, when Othel Moore Jr., 38, was pepper sprayed twice, then put in a spit hood, leg wrap and restraint chair, said Cole County Prosecuting Attorney Locke Thompson. Moore was then moved to a separate unit, where he was left in a locked cell in the hood, wrap and chair for 30 minutes. s. Thompson said multiple people heard him saying he couldn’t breathe.
Moore was eventually taken to a hospital wing and was pronounced dead. Thompson said the medical examiner ruled Moore’s cause of death was from positional asphyxiation. The death was listed as a homicide.
The complaint charges Justin Leggins, Jacob Case, Aaron Brown and Gregory Varner each with one count of second-degree murder and with one count of being an accessory to second-degree assault. A fifth guard, Bryanne Bradshaw, is charged with accessory to involuntary manslaughter. An attorney for Moore’s family, Andrew Stroth, has said Moore had blood coming out of his ears and nose. “There’s a system, pattern and practice of racist and unconstitutional abuse in the Missouri Department of Corrections, and especially within the Jefferson City Correction Center,” Stroth said, adding: “It’s George Floyd 3.0 in a prison." The Missouri Department of Corrections said Moore died in a restraint system designed to prevent injury to himself and others, and that the department has discontinued using that system. The corrections department said 10 people involved in the incident “are no longer employed by the department or its contractors.”
\