DINWIDDIE COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) – Four of the eight people charged in the death of Irvo Otieno, a Black man who suffocated after he was pinned down while being admitted to a Virginia psychiatric hospital, are set to go to trial next year.
Five-day jury trials were set for Randy Boyer, Dwayne Bramble, Jermaine Branch and Bradley Disse, who all face second-degree murder charges, in Dinwiddie County Circuit Court on Wednesday.
Otieno, 28, died in March after he was pinned down to the floor by seven Henrico sheriff’s deputies and three hospital workers while handcuffed and being admitted to Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie.
The state medical examiner’s office ruled Otieno’s death a homicide after concluding he suffocated. Ten people were initially charged in his death, but charges were eventually dropped against two hospital workers.
Boyer, Bramble, Branch and Disse — four of the seven Henrico sheriff’s deputies charged — are all scheduled to go to trial in 2024, online court records show.
Here’s a list of when they are set to go to trial on the second-degree murder charges:
- Boyer: Sept. 9, 2024 – Sept. 13, 2024
- Bramble: June 3, 2024 – June 7, 2024
- Branch: Aug. 5, 2024 – Aug. 9, 2024
- Disse: Aug. 12, 2024 – Aug. 16, 2024
Surveillance video obtained and reviewed by 8News, which does not include sound, shows as many as 10 sheriff’s deputies and personnel at Virginia’s Central State Hospital pinning a handcuffed and shackled Otieno to the ground for over 11 minutes until he’s motionless.
The footage, obtained through a Dropbox link in public court records, shows Otieno being dragged into the psychiatric hospital at 4:19 p.m. on March 6, being restrained and pressed to the floor in a hospital admissions room and unsuccessful attempts to resuscitate him after his body goes limp.
Police placed Otieno under an emergency custody order on March 3, three days before he died at Central State Hospital, following a reported burglary. Otieno’s family said he had a history of mental health struggles and that he was experiencing a mental health crisis at the time.
Before Otieno was transported to Central State Hospital, his family’s attorneys say he was taken from Parham Doctors’ Hospital to Henrico Jail West, claiming he was restrained for more than 11 hours in a chair, not given medication and was “severely beaten by Henrico County deputies.”
