Trial opens against 3 Detroit-area guards charged with man’s death at mall 10 years ago

PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — Security guards at a suburban Detroit mall flunked their training and ignored a man’s repeated cries for help during an intense physical struggle that caused his death, a prosecutor said Monday as trial opened more than 10 years later.

McKenzie Cochran told guards, “I can’t breathe,” while he was being restrained on the floor at Northland Center in 2014, Assistant Attorney General Robyn Liddell told jurors.

“For 11 minutes, the defendants had McKenzie face down on the floor with their collective body weight on top of him,” Liddell said. “For 11 minutes, McKenzie cries. For 11 minutes, McKenzie screams.

“They disregard his pleas. They disregard his cries for help. They disregard the gasps of air,” she said.

Cochran, 25, who had an enlarged heart, died of asphyxiation, according to an autopsy.

“It was not a fair fight. It was five against one,” Liddell said, telling jurors that video will be part of the evidence.

John Seiberling, Gaven King and Aaron Maree are charged with involuntary manslaughter, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 15 years.

Another guard, Lucius Hamilton, pleaded guilty Friday after the judge said she would likely be in favor of a 90-day jail sentence.

In 2014, the Oakland County prosecutor at the time declined to file charges after consulting with the U.S. Justice Department. But Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel stepped in with her own charges in 2021.

The case of Cochran, who was Black, got fresh attention in 2020 during a local race for prosecutor and amid outrage over the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was pinned to the ground by Minneapolis police.

On Jan. 28, 2014, the owner of a jewelry store called mall security to report Cochran was “acting crazy” and had threatened to kill somebody. Seiberling and a senior guard, Gary Chaffin, told Cochran to leave the mall, but he did not comply.

Cochran rushed toward Chaffin, who sprayed him with pepper spray. Prosecutors acknowledge Cochran “actively resisted” the guards and was “overpowering” them. Three more guards arrived and all five ended up on the floor with him.

Cochran was motionless with his wrists in handcuffs behind his back when Southfield police appeared.

“Are McKenzie Cochran’s words scary? Absolutely,” Liddell said, referring to the initial confrontation with the jewelry shop owner. “But are his words a crime? Absolutely not.”

Defense lawyers urged the jury to look at each guard individually. Doraid Elder said King was just 22 back in 2014 — “a kid”— and only tried to control Cochran’s hand during the struggle.

“It’s important not to be swayed by emotions in this case,” he said.

Another lawyer, Wright Blake, said Maree, too, only grabbed Cochran’s wrist.

“You’re not going to hear anything about him putting his weight on this individual, kicking him. ... And they want to charge him with murder or involuntary manslaughter,” Blake said.

Seiberling’s attorney, Keefe Braxton, said Cochran was very aggressive.

“Words are a threat, and threats can become action. ... This man fought up until they put his hands in the handcuffs,” Braxton said.

Chaffin is not part of the case; he died three years later in 2017. The mall no longer exists after being demolished for redevelopment in 2021.

Many people in the jury pool said they couldn’t recall hearing about Cochran’s death. Prosecutors acknowledged much time has passed.

“You’re going to have witnesses who may have memory issues,” Assistant Attorney General LaDonna Logan told the pool.

In 2014, the county prosecutor at the time, Jessica Cooper, said any negligence by the guards did not rise to the level of a crime.

Cooper believed it “would be difficult to secure a conviction,” Logan said in a court filing. “That belief is within a prosecutor’s discretion but is clearly not shared by the attorney general.”

Before trial, Wright said the decision to charge the guards reflected a “politicization of the criminal justice system.

“This clearly stems from what happened with George Floyd and police misconduct across the nation,” he said in an interview. “This case is just totally different from any of those. These are security guards just trying to subdue a guy who had mental health problems.”

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This story has been corrected to note that one of the four guards pleaded guilty Friday.

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