Detroit-area Mall Guards Face Trial in Man’s Death More Than 10 Years Later

By ED WHITE

8:54 AM EDT, August 19, 2024

PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — Three security guards are facing trial this week in the death of a man who was pinned to the ground during a fierce struggle more than 10 years ago at a suburban Detroit shopping mall.

McKenzie Cochran, 25, was unarmed and repeatedly told guards, “I can’t breathe,” while face down, following a dispute at a jewelry store inside Northland Center in 2014, witnesses said.

The Oakland County prosecutor at the time declined to file charges after consulting with the U.S. Justice Department. But Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel intervened in 2021 with involuntary manslaughter charges against four men.

The case of Cochran, who was Black, got fresh attention in 2020 during a local race for prosecutor and amid outrage over the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was pinned to the ground by Minneapolis police. Prosecutors have not alleged race to be a factor in Cochran’s death.

Jury selection starts Monday. One of the four, Lucius Hamilton, pleaded guilty Friday with the hope of a favorable consideration at sentencing in October.

Defense attorney Blake Wright said the guards were moving ahead with their lives when the case was suddenly revived.

“It’s a politicization of the criminal justice system,” Wright told The Associated Press. “This clearly stems from what happened with George Floyd and police misconduct across the nation. This case is just totally different from any of those. These are security guards just trying to subdue a guy who had mental health problems.”

But Gerald Thurswell, an attorney who represented Cochran’s family in a lawsuit, said video of the struggle will be strong evidence.

“You don’t kill somebody because they’re acting weird. That’s what happened here: He was acting weird. He was acting strange,” Thurswell said.

State prosecutors allege the guards used excessive force by restraining Cochran while he lay face down on the floor for up to 15 minutes.

Cochran, who had an enlarged heart, died of asphyxiation, according to an autopsy.

In court filings, defense lawyers argued the men acted in self-defense during a chaotic time. The remaining guards facing trial are John Seiberling, Gaven King and Aaron Maree.

On Jan. 28, 2014, the owner of a jewelry store called mall security to report Cochran was “acting crazy” and had threatened to kill somebody. Seiberling and a senior guard, Gary Chaffin, told Cochran to leave the mall, but he did not comply.

Cochran rushed toward Chaffin, who sprayed him with pepper spray. Prosecutors acknowledge Cochran “actively resisted” the guards and was “overpowering” them. Three more guards arrived and all five ended up on the floor with him.

“His speech went from ‘get off of me’ to ‘I can’t breathe,’” witness Hoy Monk testified earlier in the case.

Cochran was motionless with his wrists in handcuffs behind his back when Southfield police showed up.

Defense attorney Doraid Elder said the guards made a “split-second decision” to help Chaffin and stop an “attack” by Cochran.

“There is no time for them to assess who was right or wrong in the confrontation taking place,” Elder said in a court filing.

Chaffin is not part of the case; he died three years later in 2017. The mall no longer exists after being demolished for redevelopment in 2021.

A former Detroit-area medical examiner, Dr. Carl Schmidt, is expected to be a witness for prosecutors. He reviewed autopsy records and said Cochran’s death probably should be classified as a homicide.

“Mr. Cochran was restrained by a number of individuals who were trying to prevent him from moving, so that had he been unrestrained I think it’s possible that he would have lived,” Schmidt testified at a key hearing in 2023.

He said Cochran’s enlarged heart “may have predisposed him to sudden death.”

In 2014, the county prosecutor at the time, Jessica Cooper, said the guards made mistakes but any negligence did not rise to the level of a crime. The attorney general’s office is asking Judge Martha Anderson to prohibit the defense from disclosing that history at trial.

Cooper believed it “would be difficult to secure a conviction,” Assistant Attorney General LaDonna Logan said. “That belief is within a prosecutor’s discretion but is clearly not shared by the attorney general.”