DINWIDDIE, Va. (AP) — Seven sheriff’s deputies and three employees of a Virginia mental hospital cannot all be tried together in the death of a man who was nailed to the floor while they were admitted, a judge ruled, while leaving open the possibility of joint trials for some of the defendants.
Dinwiddie Circuit Judge Joseph Teefey Jr. on Wednesday granted requests from two Central State Hospital employees to be tried separately from the other defendants. It remains unclear whether the other eight defendants will stand trial together. During a court hearing, the judge did not rule out that some of them will be tried at the same time.
Lawyers for the two hospital employees argued it would be unfair to require their clients to stand trial with several of the other defendants, including the sheriff’s deputies who took a more active role in restraining Irvo Otieno , 28. All 10 defendants are charged with second-degree murder after Otieno’s death on March 6.
Rhonda Quagliana, an attorney for hospital security guard Sadarius Williams, argued in court documents that Williams’ participation was “significantly different and does not support a manslaughter conviction.”
Teefey granted Williams’ request to be tried separately from the other defendants and granted a similar request from an attorney for hospital worker Darian Blackwell. The Washington Post reported that the two men’s lawyers said they would agree to be tried together.
During previous hearings and in statements lawyers for several defendants have pleaded that Otieno was belligerent and that the deputies tried to restrain him. They have said that their clients stood near Otieno’s feet during the fixation and did not realize he was having trouble breathing.
Video from the hospital shows several members of the group trying to hold Otieno, who was handcuffed and handcuffed, for about 20 minutes. Most of that time, Otieno lay on the floor held by a group that at one point appeared to consist of 10 people.
An autopsy determined that Otieno died of asphyxiation while in handcuffs and metal leg cuffs and held on the floor for approximately 11 minutes.
In a motion to hold one trial for all 10 defendants, Dinwiddie Commonwealth attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill argued that they “acted together” and should be tried together.
Otieno’s family, who was black, have said he was brutally beaten while going through a mental health crisis, both in hospital and while in detention several days before.
The family is represented by Ben Crump, a prominent civil rights attorney who also represented the family of George Floyd and has said Otieno’s treatment parallels the 2020 murder of Floyd by the Minneapolis Police Department.