For greater than 12 years, Kymberly Hobbs had taken care of her older brother, Charles “Chuck” Givens.

“I’m like his mother,” Hobbs mentioned.

She’s nonetheless taking care of him, even after his demise.

Givens died final yr at age 52, however he hadn’t developed intellectually or emotionally past the age of seven or 8, in accordance with courtroom paperwork.

Hobbs had served as Givens’ authorized guardian since 2009, although she lives in Lincoln, Ala. — greater than 300 miles from Marion Correctional Treatment Center in Virginia, the place Givens was incarcerated for a 2010 homicide. He was housed in Marion’s particular unit for inmates coping with disabilities and psychological sickness.

“I would see him whenever I could. We had phone calls and video chat and things,” Hobbs mentioned.

Though she did not understand it on the time, she would final see her brother alive in December 2021 when he was hospitalized for pneumonia and hypothermia, Hobbs mentioned. The incontrovertible fact that he suffered from hypothermia whereas being incarcerated raised some crimson flags and considerations, however she did not have any cause to suppose past what jail officers had been telling her, she mentioned.

About two months later, on Feb. 5, 2022, Givens could be discovered mendacity useless on his cot at Marion.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think that it was what it was,” Hobbs mentioned of her brother’s demise.

Early on the morning of Feb. 5, Givens was final seen alive being escorted to his cell from his ward’s bathe room by Marion’s correctional officers. This motion was captured on jail surveillance footage reviewed by NPR.

A lawsuit filed this February by Hobbs and her attorneys, Paul Stanley and Mark Krudys, alleges that officers Anthony Raymond Kelly, Gregory Scott Plummer, Joshua Jackson, William Zachary Montgomery and Samuel Dale Osborne participated within the savage beating of Givens in that bathe room to some extent, in the end killing him.

Jeremy O’Quinn, the legal professional representing Osborne, declined to touch upon this case. And Cameron Bell, an legal professional representing the 4 different officers, did not reply to a number of requests by NPR for remark. Attempts to contact the 5 officers immediately had been unsuccessful.

Osborne and his legal professional, in addition to the opposite 4 officers and their attorneys, have submitted paperwork denying the allegations that Hobbs makes in her lawsuit. Osborne’s legal professional filed a movement to dismiss the lawsuit, which was denied.

A jury trial has been set to begin on Aug. 19, 2024, in accordance with courtroom data.

Hobbs and her attorneys allege that whereas within the bathe room for practically 20 minutes, these officers dumped buckets of freezing-cold water on Givens, whipped him with towels and punched him. The lawsuit claims that Osborne did not immediately take part within the beating however failed to guard Givens or intervene to cease the others.

A medical examination dated a month after Givens’ demise says clearly that he died from “blunt force trauma,” however the examiner didn’t declare it a murder. The lawsuit says Assistant Chief Medical Examiner Eli Goodman, who ready the post-mortem report, up to date his findings afterward, testified earlier than a Smyth County particular grand jury and mentioned that Givens’ demise was a murder.

In response to NPR’s requests for data associated to the employment standing of the 5 officers, the Virginia Department of Corrections mentioned Kelly left the division on Nov. 10, 2022. His final task was at Marion Correctional Treatment Center. The division didn’t clarify the circumstances of his departure.

The different officers — Plummer, Jackson, Montgomery and Osborne — are nonetheless employed at Marion however had been suspended. The division has not offered clarification on the dates of their suspension after repeated requests.

Jeffery Artrip, Marion’s warden on the time of Givens’ demise, is presently the warden at Wallens Ridge State Prison, the Department of Corrections mentioned.

“It’s been a cover-up from Day 1,” Hobbs mentioned. “From the time it happened to the first original investigation, the DA’s office, every bit of it, they have never wanted to take it serious. Or they knew it was serious but never did what they should have done.”

She mentioned that the officers have lied about what transpired within the bathe room on Feb. 5, 2022. “We know for a fact that the officers have lied under oath. And nothing has ever been charged on them,” she mentioned.

A grand jury declined to convey a legal indictment towards the officers final yr.

Stanley, Hobbs’ legal professional, mentioned Marion officers recommended that Givens’ accidents got here from a doable fall and that Givens was a recognized fall danger. This was not the case, Hobbs and Stanley say. No one has come ahead to say they witnessed this doable fall, and the accidents sustained by Givens do not align with a fall, in accordance with the health worker’s report.

Additionally, Artrip referred to as Hobbs the day her brother died to inform her he died from pure causes — earlier than any medical examination had been accomplished.

“The Virginia State Police did an investigation into Mr. Givens death, we are in the process of doing an administrative review now,” Carla Miles, the deputy director of communications for the Virginia Department of Corrections, informed NPR in an e-mail.

Requests for extra data on jail officers’ investigations had been denied, because the division mentioned it’s “exercising its discretion to withhold these records in their entirety.”

Hobbs informed NPR she feels that the jail and different officers with the Department of Corrections had been by no means sincere from the start. She mentioned they confirmed little interest in correctly investigating her brother’s demise even after the outcomes from the medical examination got here via.

Givens’ case is technically nonetheless open with the state police, however Hobbs and Stanley mentioned there was no motion on the case for the reason that grand jury declined to convey a legal indictment.

“I think it’s a small town, a small community, and we’re just going to take care of our own — the good-old-boy kind of thing,” Hobbs mentioned.

The case goes even deeper than Givens’ demise, Hobbs and Stanley allege. Evidence, together with hospital data and an eyewitness account, suggests Givens was abused for years whereas at Marion.

Hobbs and Stanley say they imagine that Givens could not report his abuse to authorities due to his diminished psychological capability and that he was focused due to his incapacity.

“He was severely handicapped as far as his mental state. So they knew he couldn’t tell people,” Hobbs mentioned.

Stanley mentioned that what troubles him most in regards to the case is “it seems that he was selected because he was the most vulnerable and incapable of defending himself or making any kind of complaint.”

Hobbs additionally mentioned she believes officers do not need to convey prices on this case due to who her brother was and the crime he dedicated.

“I’ve never defended what my brother has done. He was paying for what he done. Just because he was there doesn’t make him any less of a citizen than it does anybody else,” she mentioned.

Inmates with disabilities cope with distinctive struggles in jail

When Givens was a younger little one, he suffered a catastrophic fall down the steps. It left him in a coma for 2 weeks, and he awakened with everlasting mind harm, in accordance with courtroom paperwork.

Givens was left with the emotional and mental growth of a second- or third-grader, Hobbs mentioned. He required help and supervision for every day duties for the remainder of his life.

As an grownup, Givens additionally suffered from delusions, his medical historical past exhibits. In March 2010, Givens killed his mom’s residence well being care nurse, Misty Leann Garrett. He reportedly told investigators that he’d been attempting to get Garrett to this point him and that Satan positioned ideas in his head. He fatally shot Garrett and later referred to as the police to report himself.

Givens was initially discovered incompetent to face trial, however a second psychiatric examination deemed him match to face trial even supposing court-ordered guardianship papers issued for Hobbs years earlier state, “Givens is incapacitated to such an extent that he is unable to care for himself.”

Days earlier than the homicide trial was to start, Givens pleaded responsible to first-degree homicide and the usage of a firearm within the fee of a felony.

“He wasn’t competent,” Hobbs mentioned. “They were just really trying to push it and, I feel, make an example.” She reiterated that he wanted to be punished for his crime however that she nonetheless did not agree with the proceedings of his legal case.

He had a childlike psychological state, “so if you’re thinking a third-grader is capable of standing trial for murder, then you know there’s issues.”

The questions over Givens’ competency and the allegations surrounding his demise at Marion mirror the difficulty that folks with disabilities face once they are available contact with the legal justice system, mentioned Leigh Anne McKingsley, the senior director of incapacity and justice initiatives at The Arc. The group serves folks with mental and developmental disabilities.

McKingsley says incidents like Givens’ suspicious demise occur elsewhere.
But “I think the difference is that we don’t often know about it,” she informed NPR. “That’s the scary part.”

“We do have data from the [National Crime Victimization Survey] to show just how often people with [intellectual and developmental disabilities] are victimized” typically, she mentioned. “The survey looked at categories of disability and found that people with cognitive disabilities, which includes IDD, were much more likely to be victimized compared to people with other types of disabilities.”

This information exhibits that from 2017 to 2019, folks with disabilities had been victims of 26% of all nonfatal violent crime, whereas making up about 12% of the inhabitants. And the speed of violent victimization towards folks with disabilities was virtually 4 instances the speed for folks with out disabilities, the Bureau of Justice Statistics found.

But info on what number of incarcerated folks with disabilities could also be abused or exploited in jails or prisons does not actually exist, McKingsley mentioned.

This is even supposing about 2 in 5 — 38% — of the practically 25,000 incarcerated people surveyed throughout 364 state and federal prisons reported a incapacity of some kind, according to a report printed in March 2021 by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, which analyzed information from 2016. That works out to some 760,000 incarcerated people with disabilities, in accordance with The Conversation, a nonprofit information group that publishes articles by tutorial consultants.

There’s proof that folks with disabilities in jail additionally serve longer and harder prison sentences and that whereas incarcerated they are often uniquely focused for exploitation by fellow inmates and correctional officers. Despite this, McKingsley says she has seen that there’s not often correct help for prisoners with disabilities.

20 minutes

In addition to Givens’ psychological incapacity, he additionally suffered from a sequence of different well being points, together with a number of hospitalizations for hypothermia, Crohn’s illness and pneumonia whereas incarcerated, medical data shared with NPR present.

On the day of his demise, Givens had defecated on himself and wanted to be delivered to a bathe to wash up, Hobbs’ lawsuit states. This was a frequent subject for Givens as he struggled with Crohn’s illness, which causes irritation of the digestive tract.

An inmate who mentioned he witnessed Givens being crushed mentioned in video testimony that this was a difficulty that had irritated officers earlier than. This inmate was chargeable for cleansing Givens’ cell that day (one thing he had achieved steadily) and watched as officers introduced Givens to the bathe room early that morning. NPR will not be naming this inmate out of considerations for his security. Prison surveillance footage offered to NPR exhibits Givens carrying a crimson uniform as he was escorted out of this cell.

The witness walked out and in of the bathe room to retrieve cleansing provides and informed investigators that he noticed officers repeatedly hit Givens within the bathe and pour chilly water on him to the purpose the place Givens’ enamel had been chattering. This witness mentioned that at no level did Givens combat again and that he believed Givens did not have the capability to combat again given his incapacity.

Citing this witness’s testimony, the lawsuit claims particularly that Plummer snapped a moist towel at Givens whereas Jackson and Montgomery dumped chilly water on Givens. Kelly reentered the bathe room a number of instances and “violently punched Mr. Givens in the torso” and ribs, the go well with alleges.

On the document and on the grand jury proceedings, the officers mentioned that nothing out of the unusual occurred within the bathe room, in accordance with the grand jury report reviewed by NPR.

Prison surveillance footage offered to NPR exhibits Givens, carrying boxers, being escorted by 4 officers from the bathe room and again to his cell. There aren’t any cameras contained in the bathe room the place the alleged beating occurred.

Stanley, Hobbs’ legal professional, maintains that the officers knew the place the cameras had been within the facility and selected this space particularly because the place to actual punishment for the mess Givens had made.

The safety footage exhibits that when Givens was escorted exterior the bathe room, some 20 minutes after he entered, he was carrying boxers pulled far up previous his navel.

Nearly two hours later, at 9:30 a.m., an unidentified guard appeared to look into Givens’ cell for about 40 seconds earlier than strolling away.

For the following half-hour, a number of different guards, nurses and different jail officers went out and in of Givens’ cell after he was found unresponsive. Shortly after 10 a.m., his physique was transported out of his cell on a stretcher.

The name that modified all the pieces

Roughly two hours after Givens was found in his cell and previous to any correct examination by a health worker, Hobbs was contacted by Artrip, the warden, and informed that her brother had died on account of “natural causes,” in accordance with the lawsuit.

She mentioned, “They just figured natural causes because he had been sick” with pneumonia not lengthy earlier than. That was till she acquired a second name one week later, from an entire stranger.

A lady referred to as Hobbs claiming to know particulars of Givens’ demise and that it was not pure.

“She went into detail on exactly what happened to him. She said that my brother didn’t die of natural causes and he was beat to death. She told me the guards done it,” Hobbs mentioned.

This girl was the girlfriend of an inmate additionally incarcerated at Marion. The caller mentioned she heard an account from the inmate, who himself realized of the alleged beating from the inmate who was cleansing Givens’ cell on the day of his demise.

Hobbs realized after this earth-shattering name that if this particular person had been proper, there could be proof within the post-mortem. Hobbs left messages with the health worker and waited.

Hobbs mentioned that what this particular person mentioned acquired the wheels turning: Maybe one thing actually mistaken occurred right here.

Hobbs thought once more about that final time she noticed her brother within the hospital, in December 2021.

“It was really weird how [prison officers in the hospital room] acted, especially in the shape that he was in. My brother was on the breathing tube and laying in the fetal position, was not restrained or anything, but we had five people from the prison there in the room,” she mentioned.

She thinks this was achieved to intimidate him.

The health worker’s workplace reached out to share with Hobbs that the accidents her brother sustained aligned with a beating.

The health worker informed her that “they were told when [Givens] was brought there that it was just natural, that they found him in his cell. But he said, ‘When we opened him up, I knew that that was not true’ ” because of the degree of inside bleeding they noticed, Hobbs recounted.

She mentioned, “I just fell apart at that point. I knew what the lady told me was true.”

A photograph shared with NPR of Givens’ torso exhibits not less than one inexperienced, purple and crimson contusion on the fitting facet of his physique and under his navel.

The Virginia chief health worker’s report says, “The autopsy findings clearly demonstrate that the cause of death was blunt force trauma of the torso resulting in laceration of the spleen and massive associated internal bleeding. While it is possible that the decedent sustained the acute rib fractures and associated splenic laceration as the result of a fall, no fall or injury was witnessed.”

The report goes on to say that the presence of belly contusions, bleeding of the small bowel “and the (unsubstantiated) report from a fellow inmate that the decedent was assaulted by corrections officers all raise the possibility that the decedent was involved in an unreported altercation.”

Concluding that there was no substantiated proof of Givens’ beating, the health worker listed his method of demise as undetermined. But the post-mortem report famous that this might change if extra proof turned obtainable.

Evidence factors to long-term abuse, Hobbs and Stanley say

In investigating Givens’ expertise at Marion for the lawsuit, Hobbs’ authorized staff has unearthed what it says is damning proof of a lot wider points on the jail.

Though the grand jury determined towards submitting a legal indictment in Givens’ demise, it did categorical severe considerations with the reported situations at Marion Correctional Treatment Center.

“Nearly every witness described the living conditions in this area of MCTC where mentally ill inmates are housed as unsuitable. Specifically, they described it as very hot in summer months and extremely cold in winter. More than one witness had observed ice formed on the water in toilets. We find these conditions to be inhumane and deplorable,” the report mentioned.

The inmate witness to Givens’ alleged beating repeatedly mentioned in an interview with police and Stanley, the legal professional on Hobbs’ lawsuit, that there was a sequence of points at Marion involving freezing temperatures and no bathrooms in among the cells for inmates. The lack of bathrooms meant that these inmates needed to urinate in jugs and dump the waste exterior their cell home windows once they weren’t let loose of their cells to make use of a correct toilet.

The witness mentioned within the video reviewed by NPR, “No way you should be housing people in there,” referring to Marion.

He additionally mentioned that he noticed a number of inmates, together with Givens, hospitalized within the jail medical unit for hypothermia a number of instances due to the chilly. Additionally, he mentioned officers would purposely open cell home windows (which inmates could not shut themselves) throughout winter to reveal inmates to the chilly and would activate a hallway exhaust fan to make prisoners colder simply to punish them.

The Department of Corrections will not be conscious of any such complaints, Miles, the company’s deputy communications director, informed NPR.

“We have regular sanitation inspections,” Miles mentioned, including that the division has gone via numerous well being and security inspections and evaluations by companies together with the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, the Office of the State Inspector General and the U.S. Justice Department.

“At no point have we been informed that conditions at Marion were unlivable,” she mentioned.

“All the living areas have heat. Inmates in Residential Units are let out at 6 am-11 pm,” Miles added. “There is a push button system to notify the officer on duty to let those inmates out if they have to use the restroom after the allotted time. Inmates on this unit are provided urinals in case of emergencies. All other cells in the facility have toilets in them.”

However, a number of hospital experiences present Givens was repeatedly hospitalized for hypothermia.

Medical experiences from Smyth County Community Hospital in Virginia present he was hospitalized on Feb. 8, 2021, and on Oct. 29, 2021, (throughout which docs mentioned Givens was “likely septic”), in addition to on Dec. 1, 2021, for hypothermia and physique temperatures between 87.2 and 90 levels. Hobbs’ lawsuit additionally mentions a separate hospitalization that occurred on Oct. 26, 2021, for hypothermia and chilly publicity.

Hobbs’ lawsuit additionally says that on June 17, 2021, Givens was seen in the identical hospital for proper leg bruising, swelling and ache on account of an alleged fall a couple of week and a half earlier.

Still additional, Givens’ post-mortem report exhibits prior bruising and unexplained
crimson welts on his legs and arms.

This will not be the one time that Givens was injured throughout his time at Marion.

In 2018, an investigation was launched by the Virginia Department of Corrections Special Investigations Unit into an April 24, 2018, incident by which Givens sustained first- and second-degree burns to his scalp, stomach, buttocks, proper hand, thighs, penis and scrotum.

That day, corrections officer Johnny Pickle ushered Givens into the bathe room to wash himself off after Givens defecated on himself, the investigation report says.

The report says that, in accordance with Pickle, Givens repeatedly turned off the chilly water after which mentioned the water was getting sizzling. Givens reportedly did this two or thrice whereas Pickle was supervising the bathe room. Pickle informed investigators that in some unspecified time in the future, he gave the bathe wand to Steven Thrasher, who was a part of the inmate workforce at Marion and was assigned janitorial duties on the ground. Pickle then left the room and left Givens alone with Thrasher for about two minutes.

“Although Pickle denied seeing Thrasher spray Givens with water, Givens accused Thrasher of spraying him with a water hose and holding him underneath the showerhead,” the report says. Thrasher denied this to investigators.

NPR submitted a request for data on different allegations of abuse at Marion to Virginia’s Office of the State Inspector General. The company offered a March 8, 2022, investigative report into allegations {that a} correctional officer bodily assaulted inmates. This abuse allegedly occurred in a bathe room and in addition in a again stairwell between flooring at Marion the place there aren’t any cameras.

An agent interviewed the accused corrections officer on Feb. 17, 2022, and the officer denied all allegations within the nameless criticism. There had been no victims, witnesses, particular incident dates or different proof submitted to help the criticism, so the investigation went nowhere.

Hobbs says she is in search of justice, above all else

So far, Hobbs says she and her brother have been failed by the very establishments which are supposed to carry wrongdoers accountable.

The grand jury met on Aug. 23 and Oct. 21, 2022, and heard the testimony of “Virginia State Police Special Agent Heath Seagle and multiple witnesses including Corrections Officers employed at Marion Correctional Treatment Center,” in accordance with the grand jury report filed to the circuit courtroom in Smyth County on Nov. 12, 2022.

The grand jury concluded that Givens’ demise “is suspicious.” It additionally mentioned, “The testimony of each of the Corrections Officers was nearly identical but it was not consistent with the findings of the medical examiner nor was it consistent with the physical evidence. However, there is not sufficient evidence at this time to support an indictment. We recommend that the case be reconsidered should other evidence come to light.”

According to the testimony of the health worker, officers at Marion had been “nonchalant” after the examiner shared the findings with them.

In its report, the grand jury referred to as this “irresponsible and unacceptable.”

Additionally, the Department of Corrections did not launch an investigation into Givens’ demise till after Hobbs’ lawsuit was filed, though the Virginia State Police was wanting into Givens’ demise as a murder, Stanley mentioned.

Stanley, the legal professional on Hobbs’ lawsuit, mentioned the day that Givens died, a Department of Corrections investigator was referred to as to look into the case. This is commonplace for each jail demise that occurs, Stanley mentioned.

In this case, that investigator was eliminated, and the Virginia State Police was notified of the demise and dispatched an investigator: Seagle. But that is an uncommon step given the Department of Corrections’ written process, offered to NPR by Stanley.

The division has not responded to NPR’s request for info on how a demise investigation happens.

The process says that the state police “will not be contacted or requested to conduct or assist in any investigation.” However, one exception is that the division’s director might request an investigation by the Virginia State Police.

But it’s presently unclear who made the decision to Seagle’s superiors to get a state police officer to sort out this investigation, Stanley mentioned.

Importantly, Seagle had little expertise investigating suspicious jail deaths, Stanley mentioned. He believes officers on the Department of Corrections disrupted the preliminary steps of the investigation into Givens’ demise and needed somebody unfamiliar with the surroundings who would not look too deeply into Givens’ demise.

“And that really was successful until [Hobbs] got in touch with me,” Stanley alleges.

Artrip and different Department of Corrections officers weren’t made obtainable to NPR for remark.

Corinne Geller, the general public relations director for the Virginia State Police, confirmed to NPR in May that the company’s Wytheville area workplace responded to Marion on Feb. 5, 2022, the day of Givens’ demise, to analyze.

“Once state police completed its investigation, the investigative findings were turned over to the Smyth County Commonwealth’s Attorney for review and adjudication,” Geller mentioned. She referred NPR to Roy Evans, the Smyth County commonwealth’s legal professional, whose workplace is chargeable for bringing any doable legal prices within the case.

Evans mentioned the case “remains open in this office.”

A spokeswoman for Virginia’s legal professional common, the state’s lead prosecutorial arm, mentioned of the case: “We cannot comment on pending litigation.”

Hobbs has tried to get her brother’s belongings despatched to her, however her repeated requests to the jail have gone unanswered.

Both with the lawsuit and thru telling her brother’s story, Hobbs mentioned, she hopes everybody she alleges was concerned in his demise is delivered to justice. The lawsuit seeks not less than $15 million in financial damages.

“What I want is for them to be in prison. What I want is for them to stand for what they done,” Hobbs mentioned. “These people are getting paid to protect and serve. They’re getting paid to do their job. They take an oath, and to me that should hold them higher and more accountable.”