Jail death trial: Attorneys deliver opening statements in 2019 case

A prosecutor said the case of a Richland County Jail inmate who died after being subdued by corrections officers in 2019 comes down to excessive use of force.

His counterpart of the defense team said he "couldn't disagree more."

Attorneys delivered their opening statements Tuesday in the trial of former corrections officer Mark Cooper. The 56-year-old is charged with involuntary manslaughter, a first-degree felony; another count of involuntary manslaughter, this one a third-degree felony; and reckless homicide, a third-degree felony.

Cooper faces charges in connection with the death of Alexander Rios, 28. The official cause of death was excited delirium, which occurs with a sudden onset, with symptoms of bizarre and/or aggressive behavior, shouting, paranoia, panic, violence toward others, unexpected physical strength and hyperthermia.

As of March of this year, a number of medical organizations no longer recognize excited delirium.

Special Prosecutor Forrest Thompson, from Medina County, is challenging the cause of death, saying Rios could not breathe.

"In 8-plus seconds, a 250-pound corrections officer (Cooper) stood on the back of Alexander Rios with both feet," Thompson said. "He shoved the life out of his body. He shoved the air out of his body, and he shoved the life out of his body."

Rios taken to hospital, never regained consciousness

The encounter happened on Sept. 19, 2019. Rios was taken to OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital, but he never regained consciousness. He died eight days later.

In his opening statement, defense attorney Sean Boone, who is trying the case with James Mayer III, said the trial was not about excessive use of force.

"This was a use-of-force incident. Whether they like it or not, it was," Boone told the jury.

The defense attorney suggested Rios was under the influence of amphetamines at the time of the fight and reiterated the idea of excited delirium, which was recognized in 2019.

Rios was arrested on a felony warrant at his Huron County home, seemingly without incident.

Around noon the day he was arrested, corrections officers entered his pod regarding the release of another inmate.

"Alexander Rios told a corrections officer he was going to hurt himself," Boone said, adding Rios then was placed in a segregation cell.

That night, Boone said Rios began "acting bizarre."

"He started saying strange things, things that didn't make sense," Boone said.

A video captured the confrontation. Both Thompson and Boone told the jury the video was "disturbing."

Thompson said Rios was frustrated to be in jail and was expressing that to corrections officers. An extraction team entered the cell when he wouldn't calm down.

Video shows 5 corrections officers subduing Rios

The video shows Rios bursting through the door and past the jailers before being chased and subdued by five corrections officers.

They can be seen in the video holding Rios down, stepping and kneeling on his back while an officer punches him in the head and presses his head into the concrete floor as they struggle to handcuff him.

"It's when excessive force was brought to bear," Thompson said. "The primary question that you must answer is very, very simple. What killed Alexander Rios?

"Was it some excited delirium? Was it an accident? Was it a sequence of circumstances, something akin to Mr. Rios bringing it upon himself?"

He said Cooper was using techniques that are "taught against" in use-of-force training.

"Yes, he (Rios) did struggle and, yes, he did resist, but not to the point of a death sentence," Thompson told jurors.

Boone talked about Cooper's work history. He started at the county jail in 2003 and worked there until December 2021.

The defense attorney said Cooper and the other corrections officers followed a "continuum of force" and did not violate policy.

"Excited delirium has fallen out of favor, but that's not say that there aren't certain symptoms that go along with it," Boone said, adding Rios showed "a lot of symptoms."

"It's a use-of-force incident that went tragically wrong," he said. "This is not criminal."

The forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy on Rios was the state's first witness. Dr. Amanda Paul testified that she has changed her mind on his cause of death.

Doctor calls excited delirium 'a relic of the past'

Paul, who then was a forensic pathology fellow, or trainee, signed off on the autopsy report that the cause of death was excited delirium.

On the witness stand, she explained her change of mind.

"I just don't believe it's the cause of death," Paul said. "It (excited delirium) is a relic of the past and something we don't really use anymore in forensics."

Paul said she now thinks the "altercation with police ... and the force on his back are what I believe led to his demise."

She explained she never agreed with the original ruling but went along with her supervisor.

"My opinion never really changed," Paul said. "I had to defer to my attending supervisor. I really was not comfortable with the finding of excited delirium."

During the afternoon session, Mayer pressed Paul about signing off on the finding.

"Even though my name is signed, it's not my opinion," Paul said. "I was very conflicted. It's given me stress and anxiety for years.

"I felt I had no choice. I did what I had to do."

Mayer asked Paul if she made any calls to share her concerns.

"I thought about it, but I never did it. I didn't know what to do," Paul said.

The other witness Tuesday was Toni Mould, Rios' mother. On direct examination, she described her son as "kind, funny and a hard worker" who struggled with addiction for years.

Hooked up to a ventilator, shaking uncontrollably

Mould said she received a call about the confrontation and saw her son at the hospital.

"He was hooked up to a ventilator, eyes closed, just shaking uncontrollably," she said.

When family members decided to take Rios off the ventilator, they expected him to die peacefully, Mould said, but that did not happen.

"He would open his eyes and gasp," she said. "We all just started bawling."

Mould said no one from the jail or the sheriff's office ever reached out to the family.

In December 2021, a $4 million settlement was reached in a wrongful death lawsuit Rios' family filed against the Richland County Sheriff's Office.

The trial will resume Thursday before Judge Brent Robinson.

mcaudill@gannett.com

419-521-7219

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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Attorneys give opening statements in case involving county jail inmate