Two lawyers for Otieno’s family, who watched the video with them, said the three hospital workers dressed in blue uniforms could be seen joining the deputies in brown — putting their weight on him as he lay prone on the hospital floor for 11 minutes, handcuffed, his feet shackled. They called on the Justice Department to investigate.
“What I saw was a lifeless human being without any representation, no [regard] for his human life,” Ochieng said, his voice breaking. “At what point do we consider mental illness a crime?”
Ouko said her 28-year-old younger son, whom she described as an aspiring hip-hop artist, was suffering from a mental health problem when police took him into custody at her Henrico County home on March 3.
He died of asphyxiation at the hospital three days later, after the seven deputies applied their body weight to him, Dinwiddie County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill said earlier this week.
Baskerville didn’t provide any details as to the role the hospital staffers played in Otieno’s death, but the employees have been identified as Darian M. Blackwell, 23, Wavie L. Jones, 34, and Sadarius D. Williams, 27. They’re currently all being held without bond at the Meherrin River Regional Jail in Brunswick County. The deputies charged in Otieno’s death have also been identified publicly.
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The prosecutor identified the deputies, all who live in Virginia, as Jermaine Lavar Branch, 45, of Henrico; Boyer, 57, of Henrico; Dwayne Alan Bramble, 37, of Sandston; Bradley Thomas Disse, 43, of Henrico; Tabitha Renee Levere, 50, of Henrico; Brandon Edwards Rodgers, 48, of Henrico; and Kaiyell Dajour Sanders, 30, of North Chesterfield.
An attorney for deputy Randy Boyer has already declared that his client is “100 percent” innocent. In fact, attorney Caleb Kershner said he’s “very, very shocked and surprised” by the murder charges, which he called an “extreme measure.”
“It appears as if we…
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