Former West Virginia jail supervisor sentenced in coverup of assault that led to inmate’s death

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – An ex-jail supervisor in West Virginia was sentenced Thursday to more than 17 years in federal prison for his role in the coverup of an assault by other corrections officers that led to an inmate’s death.

Former Lt. Chad Lester was convicted in January of three felony obstruction of justice charges related to the March 2022 attack on Southern Regional Jail inmate Quantez Burks.

Burks, 37, was a pretrial detainee who died less than a day after he was booked into the jail in Beaver on a wanton endangerment charge.

According to court documents, Burks tried to push past an officer to leave his housing unit. Burks then was escorted to an interview room where officers hit him while he was restrained and handcuffed.

Prosecutors said Lester gave false statements to investigators and told subordinate officers to do the same. Lester also threatened officers with violence and retaliation and added false statements to several officers’ reports. A jury convicted Lester on charges of giving false statements, witness tampering and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses.

“On the defendant’s watch, correctional officers killed an inmate, and the defendant conspired with them to cover up their crimes,” Lisa Johnston, acting U.S. attorney for West Virginia’s southern district, said in a statement. “The defendant violated the public’s trust in the law enforcement system he had sworn to uphold.”

Seven other correctional officers have pleaded guilty in connection with the assault. Several testified against Lester during his trial.

Officer Steven Nicholas Wimmer was sentenced last week to nine years in prison for conspiring to use unreasonable force against Burks. Four others face sentencing on the same charge later this year. Two other officers are set for sentencing next month for their guilty pleas to violating the civil rights of Burks by failing to intervene in the assault.

The state medical examiner’s office attributed Burks’ primary cause of death to natural causes, prompting his family to have a private autopsy conducted. The family’s attorney revealed at a news conference in late 2022 that the second autopsy found Burks had multiple areas of blunt force trauma on his body.

The case drew scrutiny to conditions and deaths at the jail, where news outlets had reported there were more than a dozen deaths in 2022.

In November 2023, West Virginia agreed to pay $4 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by inmates who described conditions at the jail as inhumane. The lawsuit cited such complaints as a lack of access to water and food at the facility, as well as overcrowding and fights that were allowed to continue until someone was injured.