By Summer Ballentine
Associated Press
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Four Missouri corrections officers were charged Friday with murder, and a fifth with accessory to involuntary manslaughter, in the December death of a man who was in custody at Jefferson City Correctional Center, according to a complaint filed Friday.
A group of corrections officers making up 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, according to a news release from Cole County Prosecuting Attorney Locke Thompson.
Moore was then moved to a separate housing unit, where he was left in the hood, wrap and chair for 30 minutes. 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, and his death was listed as a homicide. He confirmed the events were captured on the prison’s video surveillance system.
“After sitting down and reviewing all evidence, the dozens and dozens of interviews, all the reports, we determined that charges were appropriate,” Thompson told The Associated Press.
The complaint charges four corrections officers with one count of second-degree murder and with one count of being an accessory to second-degree assault. A fifth officer was charged with one count of accessory to involuntary manslaughter.
Those charged with felony murder could face between 10 and 30 years in prison, Thompson said.
Lawyers for Moore’s mother and sister filed a lawsuit Friday against the officers and the Department of Corrections.
The Missouri Department of Corrections released a statement Friday saying 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 also said after the criminal investigation and its own internal review, 10 people involved in the incident “are no longer employed by the department or its contractors.”
The department said it “will not tolerate behaviors or conditions that endanger the wellbeing of Missourians working or living in our facilities. The department has begun implementing body-worn cameras in restrictive-housing units at maximum-security facilities, starting with Jefferson City Correctional Center, to bolster both security and accountability.”
A voice message requesting comment from the corrections officers union was not immediately returned Friday.