Officers beat pretrial detainee to death in jail’s ‘blind spot’ as punishment, feds say
A man tried to leave his pod at a West Virginia jail, then was beaten by multiple corrections officers as punishment until he died, federal prosecutors said.
The 37-year-old man, who was a pretrial detainee, was brought to a “blind spot,” in handcuffs, for the beating at the Southern Regional Jail in Beaver on March 1, 2022, according to the Justice Department.
Two officers, the latest to plead guilty in the man’s death, and several others would bring inmates accused of misconduct — or “who they considered to be a nuisance” — to “blind spots” inside the jail, where there were no surveillance cameras, court documents say.
There, the officers would use unjustified force “to punish them,” according to court filings.
Johnathan Walters and Corey Snyder, who no longer work as corrections officers, have both pleaded guilty to conspiring with other officers to violate the rights of the inmate identified as “Q.B.” in court papers, resulting in his death, the Justice Department announced in a Nov. 19 news release.
Walters, Snyder and six other officers were charged in connection with the man’s death, according to prosecutors.
The man, Quantez Burks, hadn’t spent a full day at the Southern Regional Jail when he was killed, WVNS-TV reported.
Attorneys representing Walters and Snyder didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment Nov. 20.
The moments leading to Burks’ death
In jail, prosecutors said Burks tried to leave his housing pod by pushing past an officer, resulting in officers forcefully detaining him.
Snyder responded to the incident and put his arm around Burks’ neck and took him to the floor, according to the Justice Department
“To retaliate against (Burks) for his attempt to leave the pod,” the officers brought Burks to an interview room that lacked surveillance cameras, according to the Justice Department.
At this point, Walters arrived and took part in beating Burks with Snyder and the other officers, prosecutors said.
They repeatedly hit Burks in the head, kicked him, “knee-struck” him, pulled and twisted his finger and pepper-sprayed him, according to the Justice Department.
Then, the officers carried Burks, who went limp and couldn’t walk due to the beating, by his arms and legs, back to a pod, prosecutors said.
Walters, who was carrying Burks by the arm, swung Burks’ head into a metal door that led into the pod, according to prosecutors.
He used “the force from (his) head to push open the door,” the Justice Department said.
“There was no reason for (Walters)” to do this and he “knew the use of force was unjustified,” prosecutors wrote in Walters’ plea agreement.
Walters and the officers dropped Burks face down on the concrete floor of the cell inside the pod, then one officer kicked him, according to the court filing.
Burks “became unresponsive and was not breathing,” the plea agreement says.
In pleading guilty, Snyder and Walters acknowledged that they knew the interview room, where Burks was beaten, had no cameras, according to the Justice Department.
They also acknowledged that inmates and pretrial detainees were beaten in “blind spots” of the jail, prosecutors said.
Burks’ family had a private autopsy performed after a state medical examiner’s office concluded he died of natural causes, The Associated Press reported.
The private autopsy showed Burks’ body had blunt force trauma, according to the outlet.
Burks had been booked in jail on charges of wanton endangerment and obstructing a police officer, WVNS-TV reported. He had told arresting officers from the Beckley Police Department that he shot at a cat at his home, according to the TV station.
He “nonviolently struggled with officers” who arrested him, according to video footage, WVNS-TV reported.
Other officers charged
Snyders, Walters and four other officers were indicted in connection with Burks’ death in November 2023, according to the Justice Department.
In August, Ashley Toney and Jacob Boothe pleaded guilty to violating Burks’ civil rights “by failing to intervene when other officers used unreasonable force,” prosecutors said.
On Nov. 13, Mark Holdren pleaded guilty “to conspiring with other officers to violate (his) civil rights,” according to the Justice Department.
A lieutenant named in the indictment, Chad Lester, is charged in connection with his involvement in covering up what led to Burks’ death, prosecutors said. His jury trial is set for Dec. 10.
Lester’s attorney, S. Benjamin Bryant, told McClatchy News on Nov. 20 that Lester was not involved in the actions that resulted in Burks dying and that he “never touched” him.
“Lt. Lester likewise did not obstruct the investigation and we will vigorously defend against those charges, and let a jury decide,” Bryant said.
Attorneys representing Toney, Boothe and Holdren didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ requests for comment.
Two additional officers, Steven Nicholas Wimmer and Andrew Fleshman, were separately charged in Burks’ death, according to the Justice Department.
On Nov. 2, 2023, Wimmer and Fleshman pleaded guilty to conspiring with other officers to use unreasonable force, the Justice Department said in a prior news release.
Wimmer and Fleshman’s attorneys didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Court records show Walters and Snyder are scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 5.
Boothe, Toney and Holdren are also scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 5, and Wimmer and Fleshman are scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 7, according to the Justice Department.
Latasha Williams, who was Burks’ fiancee, and his mother, Kimberly Burks, fought for answers after he died, according to WVNS-TV.
Williams encourages other families of incarcerated individuals who died at Southern Regional Jail to do the same, the TV station reported.
“Don’t give up. Don’t stop. Don’t stop asking questions,” Williams told the outlet. “Go with your gut, because that’s what we did.”
This story was originally published November 20, 2024 at 1:22 PM with the headline "Officers beat pretrial detainee to death in jail’s ‘blind spot’ as punishment, feds say."
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