Virginia grand jury indicts 10 suspects in Irvo Otieno's death; video shows him pinned to floor
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Multiple people pinned Irvo Otieno to the floor of a hospital’s admissions unit before the 28-year-old Black man died on March 6, according to new footage.
The roughly 90-minute video, which can be found via a link in public court filings, is at the center of a second-degree murder case that commonwealth’s attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill presented Tuesday morning to a grand jury. Ten people – seven Henrico County sheriff’s deputies and three Central State Hospital employees – were named suspects in Otieno's death.
A grand jury in Dinwiddie County signed off Tuesday on second-degree murder charges for all 10. The seven deputies charged are Jermaine Lavar Branch, 45; Bradley Thomas Disse, 43; Randy Joseph Boyer, 57; Dwayne Alan Bramble, 37; Tabitha Rene Levere, 50; Brandon Edward Rodgers, 48; and Kalyell Dajour Sanders, 30. The hospital employees are Darian M. Blackwell, 23, Wavie L. Jones, 34, and Sadarius D. Williams, 27.
Otieno died days after he was identified as a potential suspect in a possible burglary. He was taken to the hospital under an emergency custody order and later arrested and charged with assault on a law enforcement officer, disorderly conduct in a hospital and vandalism, according to Henrico County Police.
The preliminary cause of death is asphyxiation, according to Baskervill. The state medical examiner preliminarily ruled the manner of death as a homicide. At the request of Otieno’s family, Baskervill said she would release the hospital video after the grand jury reached its decision. Attorneys for two of the defendants tried to prevent the video's release.