7 Virginia Deputies Charged With Murder in Death of Man at Hospital

By Eduardo Medina March 15, 2023 | Original Article

A prosecutor said that the Henrico County Sheriff’s Office deputies got on top of a handcuffed and shackled Irvo Otieno, causing him to die from asphyxiation. His family says he had a mental illness.

The S.T.A.R. Center, at Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie County, Va, where Irvo Otieno passed away on Tuesday.Credit…Bob Brown/Richmond Times-Dispatch, via Associated Press

Seven sheriff’s deputies in Virginia have been charged with second-degree murder in the death of a Black man with a history of mental illness who died after the officers smothered him as he lay on the ground in handcuffs and leg shackles at a hospital, his family’s lawyer and a county prosecutor said on Wednesday.

The man, Irvo Otieno, 28, of Henrico County, Va., whose family emigrated from Kenya when he was 4 years old, appeared to have died from asphyxiation, or oxygen deficiency, on March 6 at Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie County, his family’s lawyer, Mark Krudys, said in an interview. His family says Mr. Otieno was deprived of medication while in jail that he needed for his mental illness.

A correction was made on March 16, 2023: An earlier version of this article misattributed a quotation. It was Mark Krudys, a lawyer for Irvo Otieno’s family, not Mr. Otieno, who said, “I mean, it’s a very harsh treatment for somebody that’s obviously in a very confused state.”

Eduardo Medina is a reporter covering breaking news. @byEduardoMedina