Family releases video showing final moments before Black man's death in Missouri prison

[October 30, 2024]  By SUMMER BALLENTINE

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man who died after he was placed in a spit hood and restrained in a Missouri prison was motionless for nearly 10 minutes before a nurse checked on him, prison video released Tuesday shows.

Video of the final the moments before Othel Moore’s December 2023 death shows the Black 38-year-old heaving with a mask covering his face, hands restrained behind his back and legs bound together as a guard watches from outside the cell.

Four former staffers at the Jefferson City Correctional Center have pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder. Charges against a fifth were dropped, Department of Corrections spokesperson Karen Pojmann said.

A criminal complaint alleges that guards pepper-sprayed Moore, placed a mask over his face and left him in a position that caused him to suffocate.

Moore's mother and sister separately filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

Surveillance video provided by Moore family lawyers shows a number of incarcerated men stripped down to their boxers with their hands restrained behind their backs as guards filter through cells and belongings on Dec. 8, 2023, the day Moore died.

While standing handcuffed just outside his cell door, a guard pepper-sprayed Moore, according to Cole County Prosecuting Attorney Locke Thompson’s office.

Video released by Moore’s family then shows him being led away from the other incarcerated men. Guards held his arms as he went down to his knees and eventually lay face down on the floor.

Guards then bound his legs together and put a mask over his face before strapping him into a cart in a reclined position, the video shows.

As he was restrained, the video shows Moore swayed back and forth but did not appear to struggle with guards.

Guards told investigators that Moore was not following orders to be quiet and that he spit at them, although witnesses said Moore was spitting pepper spray out of his mouth.

Oriel Moore describes her life without her brother, Othel Moore Jr., to reporters Dec. 19, 2023, at the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City, Mo. (AP Photo/Summer Ballentine, File)

Video shows guards then wheeled Moore to a locked cell, where he initially attempted to push himself to a more upright position before falling back into the reclined headrest.

His movements gradually slowed for about 20 minutes until he lay motionless, his head slumped to one side.

A nurse arrived about 10 minutes after Moore went motionless, calmly checked his pulse and moved his limp head. The nurse and another staffer briefly applied rapid compressions to his upper body before he was wheeled out of the cell.

The Moore family's attorney, Andrew M. Stroth, said in a Tuesday news conference that prison staff acted with “no sense of urgency.”

In a separate statement, Stroth said the video highlights “the complete disregard for the sanctity of life, deliberate indifference and failure to provide emergency medical care to Othel by the medical staff.”

Ten staffers and contractor employees were fired in response to Moore's death.

“We have taken and will continue to take steps necessary to mitigate safety risks to everyone in our facilities,” said a June statement from the department after criminal charges were filed against several former staffers. "We take seriously our responsibility for creating the safest environment possible and will not tolerate behaviors or conditions that endanger the wellbeing of Missourians working or living in our facilities."

Pojmann in a Tuesday email said body cameras are now used at all of the state’s maximum-security facilities.

Three of the former staffers charged with second-degree murder in Moore's death have scheduled court appearances in January. A fourth faces trial Dec. 11.

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