The Virginia prosecutor investigating the death of Irvo Otieno is seeking to withdraw charges against five law enforcement officers who were indicted on murder counts, curtailing the scope of what was once a sprawling case to three defendants. Otieno, a 28-year-old Black man whose family said he was in mental distress when he arrived at Central State Hospital for treatment, died of asphyxia as Henrico County sheriff’s deputies and hospital workers restrained him for 11 minutes, according to surveillance video and the medical examiner, the Washington Post reports. Authorities in Dinwiddie County initially charged 10 people in Otieno’s death. Seven were sheriff’s deputies and three were hospital workers inside the admissions room where Otieno died March 6, 2023. His death made international headlines, becoming a rallying cry against police use of force targeted at unarmed Black men. Otieno’s family said he was an aspiring musician who was off his medication.
Deputies and hospital workers struggled to restrain Otieno, who was bound at the hands and legs, but not all 10 defendants were piling on top of him or exerting the same level of force, defense attorneys argued with the prosecutor’s office. Ann Cabell Baskervill, who sought the initial charges as Dinwiddie’s top prosecutor in 2023, agreed to drop the cases against two hospital workers last year before resigning to enroll in a French graduate school. Amanda Mann, now the county’s top prosecutor, filed papers Friday seeking to dismiss the indictments against Henrico County sheriff’s deputies Jermaine Branch, Dwayne Bramble, Randy Boyer, Bradley Disse and Tabitha Levere. A judge must approve the prosecutor’s request before the charges can be withdrawn. Russell Stone, the defense attorney for Bramble, said video of Otieno’s final moments did not show Bramble acting with malice, a key element required to prove second-degree murder.