CNN — Three hospital employees in Virginia were arrested Thursday and charged with second-degree murder in the death of Irvo Otieno, the 28-year-old Black man who died at a state mental health facility last week, the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Dinwiddie County said in a news release obtained by CNN affiliate WTVR.
Those charged come in addition to the seven sheriff’s deputies who were charged with second-degree murder on Tuesday.
The three Central State Hospital employees were identified as Darian M. Blackwell, 23, of Petersburg; Wavie L. Jones, 34, of Chesterfield; and Sadarius D. Williams, 27, of North Dinwiddie. They were arrested Thursday and are being held without bail in the Meherrin River Regional Jail in Brunswick County, the commonwealth attorney’s office said.
Online court records show the seven deputies and three hospital employees are scheduled for a grand jury hearing Tuesday.
Also on Thursday, Otieno’s family watched surveillance video that prosecutors have said shows law enforcement officers fatally smothering him.
“My son was treated like a dog, worse than a dog,” Otieno’s mother, Caroline Ouko, said. “I saw it with my own eyes on the video.”
Otieno died March 6 at the state mental health facility during the intake process as he was being transferred from a Henrico County jail, according to Commonwealth’s Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill.
Baskervill said she is not able to release the video to the public.
“The criminal information warrants are based on the evidence collected, analyzed and evaluated to-date,” Baskervill said, according to the news release announcing the arrests of the hospital workers.
“A key element of that evidence is the surveillance video from Central State Hospital that captures the intake process. To maintain the integrity of the criminal justice process at this point, I am not able to publicly release the video.”