2 weeks Ago By By Kurt Erickson St. Louis Post-Dispatch
JEFFERSON CITY — A newly released video of an incident in a Missouri prison shows employees offering little to no assistance to a man who later died after being shackled, pepper-sprayed and restrained in a holding cell. The video, released by attorneys for the family of the inmate, is expected to be used in a civil lawsuit against the Missouri Department of Corrections for its actions in the Dec. 8, 2023 death of Othel Moore .
It also could become evidence in a separate criminal trial being pursued by the Cole County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office following the filing of charges against five state prison workers. Attorney Andrew Stroth said the video shows a scene similar to one involving the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, in which Floyd repeatedly said he could not breathe while he was being detained. The video shows Moore, 38, “shackled like an animal” while employees at the Jefferson City Correctional Center watched him struggle to stay alive.
Stroth said the video shows a “failure on every level” of the Department of Corrections. Along with suing corrections employees, the family also sued Centurion Health, the health care provider for the prison system. In response to the incident, corrections officials fired the officers involved and relieved the warden of the prison of her duties.
Moore, who grew up in St. Louis, had been incarcerated for more than 18 years and was serving a 30-year sentence for second-degree domestic assault, first-degree robbery, armed criminal action and possession of a controlled substance. The incident began when corrections employees were investigating a prison housing unit for contraband.
During the search, Moore was pepper-sprayed twice and then placed in a spit hood, leg wrap and restraint chair for 30 minutes. While he was in the chair in a holding cell, the video shows his head slump to one side. His body becomes still, but correctional officers only look in at him through a locked door for an estimated 30 minutes.
Moore was later pronounced dead in the hospital wing. Another attorney for the family, Steven Hart, said the video shows a “culture of indifference” among prison staff. “Othel had done nothing wrong the night he was killed by the guards,” Hart said.
The medical examiner ruled that Moore died from positional asphyxiation and called his death a homicide. “The video also highlights the complete disregard for the sanctity of life, deliberate indifference and failure to provide emergency medical care to Othel by the medical providers from Centurion Health,” Stroth said. “This is one of the most egregious prison death cases in America and Black men continue to die at alarming rates within the Missouri Department of Corrections.
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