Manslaughter charges dropped in a man’s death at a psychiatric hospital

By OLIVIA DIAZ The Associated Press

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A Virginia judge has signed off on a prosecutor’s request to withdraw charges against two people charged in the 2023 death of Irvo Otieno, a young man who was pinned to the floor for about 11 minutes while being admitted to a state psychiatric hospital.

Dinwiddie Circuit Court Chief Judge Joseph M. Teefey Jr. approved prosecutors’ motions on Friday to drop involuntary manslaughter charges against Kaiyell Sanders and Brandon Rodgers, two Henrico County Sheriff’s deputies charged in Otieno’s death.

“We knew the evidence and we knew the evidence didn’t support the actions claimed,” said W. Edward Riley, an attorney representing Sanders said Monday.

Otieno, a 28-year-old Black man, had been taken into custody at a state psychiatric hospital amid a mental health crisis. Hospital video captured a scrum of deputies and hospital workers restraining Otieno while he was in handcuffs and leg shackles. He died of what a medical examiner found was “positional and mechanical asphyxia with restraints.”

Otieno’s death gained national attention and sparked public outcry. Caroline Ouko, Otieno’s mother, had previously said her son, a hip-hop songwriter, deserved justice.

“When they took my baby away … they took him away from his brother,” she said. They took him away from his nieces. They took him away from his friends.”

At the time, prosecutors obtained an indictment charging 10 defendants with second-degree murder, but three months later dropped two defendant’s charges. A year after that, officials dropped the charges of five more defendants in the case.

Prosecutors maintained charges against Rodgers, Sanders and Wavie Jones, a security staffer at the hospital, but downgraded the charges to involuntary manslaughter.

A jury found Jones not guilty in October.

The local Commonwealth’s attorney said in a Monday statement that she had reevaluated the evidence after Jones’ acquittal, and was compelled to drop the remaining charges.