Family releases details of Missouri prisoner who suffocated to death

The family of a prisoner who died in a Missouri prison said that the man was “brutally killed” by members of the correctional facility in a lawsuit.

The family of Othel Moore Jr. have raised a lawsuit against the Missouri Department of Correction and the Jefferson City Correctional Facility after the 38-year-old died in Jefferson City on December 8, 2023.

The family’s lawsuit writes that Moore Jr. was “brutally restrained and mummified” by the defendants, named as being members of the correction center’s emergency response team.

It adds that they “ignored his struggle to breathe, and left him to slowly and painfully suffocate.”

According to the lawsuit, the prisoner, who was Black, was pepper-sprayed and shocked by a type of glove used in prisons by officers to help with inmate compliance.

He was also reportedly restrained, and given a spit hood—which prevents a person from being able to spit—as well as a helmet and leg wraps.

He was then allegedly confined to a restraint cart and isolated in a small, enclosed space known as a dry cell, the lawsuit adds.

It continues that Moore Jr. had said repeatedly that he was unable to breathe, and accuses the defendants of ignoring his pleas.

The lawsuit writes that Moore Jr. was “left to die alone in a cell, deprived of the basic dignity of medical care and human attention. Moore should not have died. He just needed someone to care about him.”

It also alleges that Moore Jr.’s death was not “an isolated incident, but rather the product of a systematic pattern of coercion, brutality, intimidation, reckless disregard and deliberate indifference fostered the Missouri Department of Corrections’ highest-ranking officials.”

It was reported in the lawsuit that these events were recorded on video and “witnessed by many.” The lawsuit was filed on October 24.

In the video released by the family, guards are seen holding Moore Jr.’s arms as he kneeled on the floor and lay face down.

They then bound his legs, covered his face and strapped him into a cart. Moore Jr. did not appear to struggle with the guards.

Moore’s movements gradually slowed until he became motionless. It was 10 minutes later a nurse went to check on him and found him dead.

“This graphic video evidence shows the unjustified and brutal murder of Othel Moore, a 38-year-old Black man, by correctional officers at the Jefferson City Correctional Center. This is one of the most egregious prison death cases in America,” attorney Andrew M. Stroth, managing director of Action Injury Law Group, a Chicago -based civil rights law firm, told Newsweek.

In a statement released by the Missouri Department of Corrections, the center said that Moore Jr. died while “in a restraint system designed to prevent injury to himself and others.”

The department has reportedly stopped the use of the restraint system Moore was held in since the incident of his death.

In the update shared in June 2024, the correction center reported that Cole County Prosecuting Attorney had pressed felony charges against five former corrections staff members in connection with Moore’s death.

In total, ten people were reportedly involved in the incident, and those individuals are allegedly no longer employed by the department or its contractors, the report added.

Per the Missouri Department of Corrections report, Moore was serving a 30-year sentence for convictions of second-degree domestic assault, possession of a controlled substance, two counts of first-degree robbery, two counts of armed criminal action, and violence to an inmate or employee of the Department of Corrections.

Newsweek has contacted the Missouri Department of Corrections via email for comment.

Update 10/31/24, 2:22 p.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from attorney Andrew M. Stroth.

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