Family releases video showing final moments before black man’s death in Missouri prison

COLUMBIA, Mo. – A Missouri man who died after being placed in a spit hood and restrained at a Missouri prison was motionless for nearly 10 minutes before a nurse checked on him, according to prison video released Tuesday.

Video of the finale just before Othel Moore’s death in December 2023 shows the Black 38-year-old swaying with a mask covering his face, hands behind his back and legs tied together as a guard watches from outside the cell.

Four former employees of the Jefferson City Correctional Center have pleaded not guilty to manslaughter charges. Charges against a fifth were dropped, Department of Corrections spokesperson Karen Pojmann said.

A criminal complaint alleges that guards pepper-sprayed Moore, placed a mask over his face and left him in a position that caused him to suffocate.

Moore’s mother and sister separately filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

Surveillance video from Moore family attorneys shows several incarcerated men stripped to their boxers with their hands behind their backs on Dec. 8, 2023, the day Moore died, as guards filter through cells and belongings.

As he stood handcuffed just outside his cell door, a guard pepper-sprayed Moore, according to Cole County Prosecutor Locke Thompson’s office.

A video released by Moore’s family shows him being led away from the other captured men. Guards held his arms as he fell to his knees, eventually lying face down on the ground.

Guards then tied his legs together and placed a mask over his face before strapping him into a cart in a prone position, the video shows.

While being restrained, the video shows Moore swaying back and forth but did not appear to struggle with security guards.

Guards told investigators that Moore disobeyed commands to be quiet and that he spat at them, although witnesses said Moore spit pepper spray from his mouth.

Video shows guards then took Moore to a locked cell, where he initially tried to push himself upright before falling back into the reclined headrest.

His movements gradually slowed for about 20 minutes until he lay motionless, his head to the side.

A nurse arrived about ten minutes after Moore became motionless, calmly checking his pulse and moving his limp head. The nurse and another staffer briefly applied rapid compressions to his upper body before he was wheeled out of the cell.

The Moore family’s attorney, Andrew M. Stroth, said at a news conference Tuesday that jail staff acted “without a sense of urgency.”

In a separate statement, Stroth said the video highlights “the medical staff’s complete disregard for the sanctity of life, deliberate indifference and failure to provide Othel with emergency medical care.”

Ten staffers and contractor employees were fired in response to Moore’s death.

“We have taken and will continue to take steps necessary to reduce safety risks to everyone in our facilities,” said a statement from the department in June after criminal charges were filed against several former staffers. “We take seriously our responsibility to create the safest environment possible and will not tolerate behavior or conditions that endanger the well-being of Missourians who work or live in our facilities.”

Pojmann said in an email Tuesday that body cameras are now being used in all of the state’s maximum security facilities.

Three of the former staffers charged with second-degree manslaughter in Moore’s death will appear in court in January. A fourth will be tried on December 11.