CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Another former Southern Regional Jail corrections officer charged in the death of an inmate in 2022 has pleaded guilty in federal court in Charleston.
Mark Holdren, 40, entered the plea Wednesday, admitting he conspired with other officers to violate an inmate’s civil rights which resulted in his death. The inmate was identified as Quantez Burks of Beckley. He had been in jail for less than 24 hours when the assault occurred.
Four other SRJ correctional officers, Cory Snyder, Jonathan Walters, Jacob Boothe and Ashley Toney, as well as former Lt. Chad Lester, were all indicted in November 2023 in connection to the death.
Toney and Boothe had already entered guilty pleas in the case and their sentencing hearing is set for Jan. 9, 2025.
The trial for the other defendants – Snyder, Walters and Lester – is set for Dec. 10.
According to his plea agreement, Holdren faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
Prior to the indictment, on Nov. 2, 2023, former Southern Regional Jail officers Steven Nicholas Wimmer and Andrew Fleshman each separately pleaded guilty to conspiring with other officers to use unreasonable force against Burks in connection with this incident. Sentencing hearings for Wimmer and Fleshman are scheduled for Feb. 7, 2025.
The indictment alleges that, on March 1, 2022, Holdren, Snyder and Walters conspired with other officers at the Southern Regional Jail in Beaver to use unlawful force against Burks to retaliate for his earlier attempt to leave his assigned pod.
The indictment further alleges that Holdren, Snyder and Walters struck and injured Burks while he was restrained and handcuffed, and that Boothe and Toney failed to intervene in the unlawful assault.
All six defendants conspired to cover up the use of unlawful force by omitting material information and providing false and misleading information to investigators, the indictment alleges, also charging each defendant individually with engaging in misleading conduct toward another person to hinder, delay or prevent the communication of information of the possible commission of a federal offense.
The indictment alleges that Walters, Holdren, and Boothe submitted incident reports that contained false and misleading information, as well as omitted the fact that officers had assaulted Burks. The indictment also charges Lester, Holdren, Snyder, Toney and Boothe with making false statements to the FBI about the circumstances surrounding the death.
The maximum penalties are life in prison for each of the civil rights offenses, five years in prison for each of the false statement offenses, and twenty years in prison for each of the remaining offenses.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney William S. Thompson for the Southern District of West Virginia and FBI Special Agent in Charge Michael D. Nordwall of the FBI Pittsburgh Field Office made the announcement.
A WVVA News investigation that began last year uncovered a 10-fold increase in deaths at Southern Regional Jail, from one in 2018 to 10 in 2022.
The investigation also exposed the living conditions at the jail, which eventually resulted in those in charge of SRJ leaving and a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of the inmates recently resulting in a plan for a $4 million settlement.
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