Four former corrections officers at a West Virginia jail were sentenced this week to prison terms ranging from three years to more than two decades for their roles in the fatal beating of an inmate there three years ago, prosecutors said.
The former officers were among eight who have been convicted in connection with the death of the inmate, Quantez Burks, 37, and an attempt to cover up the assault at the Southern Regional Jail in Beaver, W.Va., on March 1, 2022. Seven have now been sentenced.
Mr. Burks had been at the jail for less than 24 hours when officers took him to “blind spots” — areas without surveillance video — to punish him for having tried to push past a corrections officer and leave his assigned pod, prosecutors said.
Officers kicked and punched Mr. Burks, slammed his head into a metal table, pulled and twisted his fingers and pepper-sprayed him while he was in handcuffs, prosecutors said. They continued to beat him, prosecutors said, even after he lay motionless on a cell floor.
When emergency medical workers arrived, they pronounced Mr. Burks dead.
An initial autopsy, performed by the state, concluded that he had died of a heart attack, but members of his family later questioned that finding when they saw his bruised and beaten body, his family’s lawyers said. They paid for their own autopsy, which found that the cause of death had been blunt force trauma to the head, neck, torso and extremities, as well as cardiovascular disease, the lawyers said.
After Mr. Burks died, officers at the jail tried to cover up the assault by writing false reports, giving a false story to investigators and threatening other officers with violence and retaliation if they confessed the truth to the authorities, prosecutors said.
Eight officers were charged in connection with the death; seven pleaded guilty and one was convicted by a federal jury in January.
On Thursday, two of the former officers, Jacob Boothe, 27, and Corey Snyder, 30, were sentenced for their roles in the assault.
Mr. Snyder, who had pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate Mr. Burks’s civil rights by using unreasonable force against him, was sentenced to 19 years and seven months in prison. Mr. Boothe, who had pleaded guilty to failing to intervene to protect Mr. Burks, was sentenced to three years.
Mr. Boothe’s lawyer, John J. Balenovich, said in court papers that his client had expressed “profound remorse” for failing to defend Mr. Burks and had been “haunted by regular nightmares replaying the events of that day.”
Richard Gunnoe, Mr. Snyder’s lawyer, said in court documents that his client “reflects on his conduct on a daily basis and regrets his inexcusable lack of judgment that resulted in his involvement in this matter.”
On Wednesday, Mark Holdren, 41, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and Johnathan Walters, 33, to 21 years. They had pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate Mr. Burks’s civil rights resulting in his death.
Mr. Holdren, who was a corporal in the jail, was “one of the most culpable defendants in the death of Quantez Burks,” prosecutors said in court papers. More than a year after Mr. Burks’s fatal beating, Mr. Holdren continued to try to cover up the death, relaying a false story to F.BI. agents during a voluntary interview, prosecutors said.
David Schles, Mr. Holdren’s lawyer, said in court papers that “the relevant facts are not in dispute.”
“Mark delivered blows to Mr. Burks and witnessed others striking Mr. Burks knowing the actions were morally and legally wrong and bears responsibility for the death of a man and the suffering of his family,” Mr. Schles said. “Mark makes no excuses for his criminal conduct and is deeply ashamed that his unjustified actions contributed to the death of a man who did not deserve to be assaulted, let alone killed.”
The officers had only intended to “rough up” Mr. Burks and “teach him a lesson,” Mr. Schles said.
Prosecutors said that Mr. Walters had admitted to swinging Mr. Burks’s head into a metal door.
Mr. Walters’s lawyer, Edmund J. Rollo, said in court documents that Mr. Walters had “acted in ways that contradict his own moral compass, choosing to follow orders or conform rather than resist a powerful and deeply dysfunctional system.”
“He recognizes that this does not excuse his behavior,” Mr. Rollo added. “However, it provides essential context for understanding how a man of otherwise good character found himself complicit in conduct he now deeply regrets.”
Last month, another officer, Ashley Toney, 25, was sentenced to six and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to failing to protect Mr. Burks from the assault, prosecutors said.
In May, Chad Lester, a former lieutenant in the jail, was sentenced to 17 and a half years in prison for his role in coordinating the cover-up of the assault.
Prosecutors said Mr. Lester, who was a shift supervisor, had added false statements to multiple officers’ reports, instructed officers to give a cover story to investigators and gave false statements to internal investigators. He was convicted by a federal jury in January of three felony obstruction of justice charges, including conspiracy to tamper with witnesses, witness tampering and giving false statements.
In May, another former officer, Steven Nicholas Wimmer, 26, was sentenced to nine years in prison after he pleaded guilty to conspiring to use unreasonable force against Mr. Burks.
One former officer, Andrew Fleshman, 23, who awaits sentencing on Monday, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to use unreasonable force against Mr. Burks, prosecutors said.
Mr. Burks was booked into the jail on Feb. 28, 2022, after he fired a gun on his property and was charged with wanton endangerment and obstruction of justice, according to one of his family’s lawyers, Eric Frederickson.
Mr. Frederickson said sentencing the former officers who had beaten Mr. Burks was important, “even though there is nothing you can do to relieve the heartache of this family.”
“Quantez Burks is dead, and sentencing these officers can’t bring him back,” Mr. Frederickson said in an interview. “But I will say that it is still encouraging to see these criminal cases prosecuted, and hopefully send the message that people detained are still entitled to basic human rights and law enforcement and correctional officers are not above the law.”
Michael Levenson covers breaking news for The Times from New York.
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