On Wednesday, Mark Holdren stood in a Charleston courtroom and told a federal judge that he was guilty of a civil rights conspiracy that resulted in the death of Quantez Burks.
Mr. Burks, who would have been 40 years old next month, was arrested by Beckley police on February 28, 2022. Unable to post the $25,000 cash or property bond that a magistrate placed on his freedom, Mr. Burks was taken to Southern Regional Jail (SRJ) in Raleigh County, where he was detained pretrial.
Mark Holdren was a correctional officer at SRJ. On Wednesday, he read in open court a Stipulation of Facts that described Mr. Burks’s last moments.
It did not stop there.
Holdren and other jail employees took Mr. Burks to an interview room known to be a “blind spot” – an area of the jail with no surveillance cameras and where staff would “use unreasonable force against the inmates to punish them.”
While Holdren and others moved Mr. Burks to another section of the jail, his handcuffed body went limp. But that did not stop the officers from dropping him “facedown, on the concrete floor.” Holdren watched a co-worker kick Mr. Burks, who appeared to be “unresponsive” and “not breathing.”
Mr. Burks died on March 1, 2022. A month later, the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled his death a homicide, following “blunt impact injuries to the head, torso, and extremities.”
This was not the official story given to the public – or even to Mr. Burks’s family. Instead our state government told us that Mr. Burks was “combative” and died of a heart attack.
But the state could not have anticipated how Mr. Burks’s family would persist through their pain and grief to learn the truth about what happened to him.
They pushed for an independent autopsy. They showed up at a gubernatorial town hall meeting to demand answers from Governor Jim Justice. They joined other families who lost loved ones to West Virginia’s deadly regional jail system to demand a federal investigation. (Mr. Burks was the third of at least 11 people who died at Southern Regional Jail in 2022.)
An official response came a year and a half after Mr. Burks was killed – but not from the state. In August 2023, federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against two Southern Regional Jail officers who later admitted to watching their co-workers beat Mr. Burks to death. A few months later, federal prosecutors indicted six more correctional officers, including Holdren.
As of November 13, 2024, all but one of the indicted jail employees has pleaded guilty – or agreed to plea guilty. (Chad Lester, the highest-ranked person indicted and a former jail “Employee of the Year,” is scheduled for trial in December.)
Through guilty plea documents filed in court, a new official story emerged: A group of state employees went to work one day in a state building we are told exists to keep people safe. This group of state employees dragged Quantez Burks to an area of that state building used for committing crimes against people in custody. This group of state employees beat Quantez Burks to death – after he was handcuffed and no longer able to defend himself. Other state employees watched and did not stop the beating. When it became clear what they had done and seen, this group of state employees decided to cover it up.
The United States Attorney leading the federal prosecution reflected on the actions of these former public employees: “[T]here was a culture there that we are in charge, and if you insulted us while we are in charge, we’re going to make you pay the price.”
There is no doubt that the criminal prosecutions provided a more complete picture of what was done to Quantez Burks. But there is no hint of accountability for a system that hired, trained, and supervised the people who participated in his death.
Mark Holdren, who faced the death penalty, agreed to a plea bargain that capped his maximum sentence at 30 years. On Wednesday, the 40-year-old Holdren, wearing a jail uniform and shackles, affirmed his desire to enter a guilty plea that could mean prison for the rest of his life.
By contrast, consider the aftermath for Holdren’s former employer.
To date, the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) has not revised its official story of this homicide. Currently, DCR does not even inform the public when a person dies in custody, forcing citizens to seek out this information themselves through public records requests. And yet, as recently as January 2024, DCR reported that Mr. Burks died a “natural” death caused by “heart disease.”
There has been no public reckoning with the norms, training, and practices that cut short Mr. Burks’s life. One high-ranking official declared, “We have no tolerance for abuse of any kind to be inflicted on inmates that are housed in our state facilities.” But we, the public, have yet see to see the evidence of a changed culture.
Instead, DCR has leaned further into secrecy.
Months after they were charged in federal court, four of the eight indicted remained employed by DCR. When the WVCBP asked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide employment dates for the indicted officers, DHS denied the public information request in December 2023, claiming the information was “exempt from disclosure.” The State Auditor’s Office provided the information without objection the following month.
The most powerful state officials got a promotion.
Homeland Security Cabinet Secretary, Jeff Sandy – who presided over a jail crisis and cover-up, as well as a series of West Virginia State Police scandals – retired in 2023 on his own terms. Governor Justice presented Sandy with a “Distinguished West Virginian Award,” then appointed Sandy to the West Virginia First Foundation board where he will decide how to allocate $1 billion in opioid settlement funds.
Then last week, after two terms as governor, Justice won election to the United States Senate.
Neither of these state officials were in the courtroom on Wednesday.
