CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WVVA) – Another former Southern Regional Jail officer charged in the 2022 death of an inmate has pleaded guilty in federal court in Charleston.

Mark Holdren, 40, admitted in his plea Wednesday that he conspired with other officers to violate an inmate’s civil rights, resulting in his death. The inmate was identified as Quantez Burks of Beckley. He had been in jail for less than 24 hours when the attack occurred.

Four other SRJ corrections officers, Cory Snyder, Jonathan Walters, Jacob Boothe and Ashley Toney, along with former Lt. Chad Lester, were charged in connection with the death in November 2023.

Toney and Boothe have already entered guilty pleas in the case, and their sentencing hearings are scheduled for January 9, 2025.

The trial of other defendants Snyder, Walters and Lester will be held on December 10.

Under the plea agreement, Holdren faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Prior to the indictment, on November 2, 2023, former Southern Regional Jail officers Steven Nicholas Wimmer and Andrew Fleshman were separately pleaded guilty Conspiring with other officers to use unreasonable force against Burks in connection with this incident. Wimmer and Fleshman’s sentencing hearings will be held on February 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 in retaliation for Burks’ earlier attempt to leave his assigned pod.

The indictment also alleges that Holdren, Snyder and Walters shot and injured Burks while he was handcuffed and handcuffed, and that Boothe and Toney failed to intervene in the unlawful assault.

The indictment alleges that all six defendants conspired to cover up the unlawful use of force by omitting material information and providing false and misleading information to investigators, and also accuses each defendant individually of engaging in deceptive conduct to obstruct, delay, or impede communications against another person. information about the possible commission of a federal crime.

The indictment alleges that Walters, Holdren and Boothe filed incident reports that contained false and misleading information and omitted the fact that the officers 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 imprisonment for each of the civil rights crimes, five years’ imprisonment for each of the perjury counts, and twenty years’ imprisonment for each of the remaining crimes.

The announcement was made by Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney William S. Thompson of the Southern District of West Virginia, and FBI Special Agent in Charge Michael D. Nordwall of the FBI’s Pittsburgh Field Office.

A WVVA News investigation that began last year found that deaths at the Southern Regional Jail have increased 10-fold, from 1 in 2018 to 10 in 2022.

The investigation also revealed living conditions in the prison; This eventually led to the departure of those in charge of SRJ and the filing of a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of the inmates, resulting in a recent $4 million settlement plan.

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