First criminal trial in Irvo Otieno’s 2023 in-custody death begins

DINWIDDIE COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) – Jurors have been picked for the first criminal trial in the death of Irvo Otieno , a 28-year-old Black man whose in-custody death at a state psychiatric hospital last year drew outrage and calls for mental health system reforms in Virginia .

Otieno died March 6, 2023, while in the custody of Henrico County sheriff’s deputies at Virginia’s Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie County. Otieno struggled with mental health illness and his family said he was experiencing an emergency and needed care he never received.

Video released after his death shows sheriff’s deputies and hospital staff trying to restrain a shackled Otieno and holding him down on the floor of an admissions room at Central State Hospital until he was motionless. The video shows resuscitation attempts were unsuccessful.

Seven sheriff’s deputies and three hospital orderlies were initially indicted on second-degree murder charges but now only three men face downgraded charges of involuntary manslaughter.

The trial of Wavie Jones, a Central State worker at the time of Otieno’s death, began Monday in Dinwiddie County Circuit Court with jury selection — 12 jurors and two alternates. The jury will decide Jones’s fate at the end of what is set for a five-day trial.

During a Sept. 18 pre-trial hearing, the judge in the case granted a motion from Jones’s attorneys to redact the cause and manner of Otieno’s death from the autopsy report filed into evidence.

The judge also granted Jones’s legal team’s motion to limit the medical examiner to share their opinion on the cause but not the manner of Otieno’s death while on the witness stand.

After Otieno’s death, the medical examiner’s office’s autopsy report found he died of “positional and mechanical asphyxia with restraints” and that the manner was “homicide.” Jones’s legal team argued during the pre-trial hearing on Sept. 18 that the medical examiner’s report is based on opinion and can’t be allowed in live testimony.

Dinwiddie County Commonwealth’s Attorney Amanda Mann agreed that the jury would determine the manner of Otieno’s death and that it should be redacted from the report entered into evidence but pushed to allow the medical examiner to share their view on both cause and manner of death.

Ultimately, the judge agreed to limit the medical examiner’s testimony to their opinion on the cause of death.

Jones’s legal team also moved to include videos into evidence that they claim depict “Otieno’s prior violent acts” relevant for determining Jones “acted appropriately in defending himself and others against Mr. Otieno’s violent and combative behavior at the time of these events.”

The previously unreleased footage – surveillance video from Henrico County Jail and body-camera videos from Henrico County police officers – sheds light on Otieno’s final days and hours.

The new videos, which were obtained and reviewed by 8News , reveal Otieno’s encounters with law enforcement outside his mother’s home, at Parham Doctors’ Hospital and Henrico County Jail before he was taken to Central State Hospital.

The videos show that Otieno is met with a heavy and consistent law enforcement presence and response in the days and hours before his death, which a disAbility Law Center of Virginia (dLCV) investigative report found exacerbated Otieno’s condition.

The new police body-camera footage reveals the circumstances surrounding the assault charges that sent Otieno from Parham Doctors’ Hospital in Henrico to the county’s jail — where Otieno’s family said he should have never been — including when a police officer struck Otieno, Otieno later hits the same officer and the officer again hits Otieno.

The body-camera footage also shows how Otieno interacted with officers responding to his mother’s home three days before he died. In the videos reviewed by 8News, Otieno curses at and threatens officers who acknowledge, agreeing with Otieno’s mother, that he was in distress.

Experts who reviewed the footage for 8News said that Otieno’s in-custody death underscores the overreliance on law enforcement to respond to Virginians experiencing a mental health crisis, despite not always being well-equipped to do so.

A law enforcement consultant who reviewed the videos at 8News’ request identified potential concerns with the large police presence Otieno faced and broader issues with how authorities respond to someone under distress, highlighting similar concerns raised in the dLCV investigation.

A criminal defense attorney who reviewed the newly obtained footage and all other publicly available videos for 8News also weighed in on how the videos could help the defense team make its case.

At the Sept. 18 pre-trial hearing, Mann said she expects the prosecution of the involuntary manslaughter case to take two days after Monday’s jury selection and opening statements. Jones’s attorneys expressed concerns that the trial “could go longer” than the scheduled five days.

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