Two former sheriff’s deputies who had been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of a college student in a Savannah, Georgia, jail early this year have been found guilty of lesser charges. Former deputies Maxine Evans and Jason Kenny have been found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Evans was found guilty of public record fraud and three counts of perjury for grand jury testimony about the use of the restraint chair. Evans was convicted of faking jail logs and lying to a grand jury. Kenny, who was seen Tasering Ajibade in footage from the encounter, faces one-to-three years in prison after being convicted of cruelty to a prisoner.
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Will Claiborne, an attorney for Ajibade’s family, accused prosecutors of focusing on rank-and-file jailers rather than the sheriff and senior staff. “We expected nothing, and we got nothing”.
A deputy suffered a broken nose in the altercation, officials said.
The coroner had ruled the case a homicide and video of the incident showed a restrained and screaming Ajibade in only his underclothes being tased in his groin area. He was later found unresponsive and pronounced dead at the jail.
“The jury heard all the evidence, they heard from the pathologist, they heard about the cause of death”, said Chatham County District Attorney Meg Heap. Surveillance video showed he was left alone for 90 minutes before Evans found him dead.
Evans’ attorney Bobby Phillips said it “seemed like a vindictive prosecution”.
Brown was found guilty of making a false statement, said O’Mara, who represented neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman during his 2013 trial in the death of a 17-year old Trayvon Martin in Florida. Brown was acquitted of the involuntary manslaughter on Tuesday after Judge James Bass, Jr. granted the motion for a directed verdict.
Kenny told investigators Ajibade was “combative” as jailers tried to strap him into the chair, but prosecutor Christy Barker said video from the Taser’s built-in camera showed him “slumping in the chair”.
Ajibade was arrested on January 1 after his girlfriend and family contacted police saying he was going through a “bipolar episode”.
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Though Ajibade was one of the first people to die at the hands of police officers in 2015, there have since been at least 782 people killed by police this year, the Washington Post reported.
