Two expert witnesses offered conflicting views before an innocent verdict was presented in the trial of a 2014 death of a man who died after being pinned to the floor by security at a mall in the Detroit area.
Assistant Attorney General La Donna Logan had said Cochran died because the security guards held him down for a prolonged period of time. His heart could not take the lack of oxygen and he died. His enlarged heart could have hastened his death, Logan said, his medical condition does not mean the guards can escape criminal liability.
The head of the Oakland County medical examiner's office offered a vigorous defense of the determination that McKenzie Cochran died accidentally, the decedent's face turned down into the floor, while a guard held his shoulders and head down. Cochran had a serious heart condition. "This is not a case of homicide," said the medical examiner, Dr. Carl Schmidt. But moments earlier, another forensic pathologist told jurors the decedent's death was "indeterminate" or a possible homicide. Cochran was being held down by three male guards after being subdued when they were called to assist in a store that had problems with him. He repeatedly told them he couldn't breathe before asphyxiation claimed his life.
Dr. Carl Schmidt stated that "young people in good shape" can endure the face-down position and being restrained. But, he continued, some individuals may not be able to achieve adequate chest movement for a proper breath, which can result in a heart that simply stops beating. Schmidt, a former Wayne County medical examiner, had no part in the 2014 autopsy and did not classify the death as a homicide. He reviewed the case for the current Attorney General and opined it was not an accident, which contradicts what the initial investigation concluded. From this, I infer the prosecutor's intent is to show that there is a pattern of behavior that is unacceptable and leads to the wrong outcome, thus inferring intent on the part of the guards.
John Seiberling, Gaven King and Aaron Maree, the security gaurds involved were accused of gross negligence
. Statements given to the jurors by Dr. L.J. Dragovic, the assistant medical examiner in the Oakland County Forensic Center who was in charge of the case, indicated that the case was being handled in a questionable way. Two of the lawyers for the defendants, whose actions are being called into question, indicated that they had a very good reason for doing so: The doctor who performed the autopsy, Cheryl Loewe, died in 2023—a year before this trial began.
In front of all of us, he asserted that this was not an accident. On the basis of what? Dragovic asked incredulously. If someone shows me an intentional act, a purposeful act, that's a different matter altogether, and we would need to have a different discussion.
Cochran began his initial confrontation with security in the mall because he supposedly had threatened to kill someone. That started the events that occurred. The first guard at the scene, his confrontation with Cochran used pepper spray. Five mall cops attempted to subdue Cochran. One of the five guards involved in this incident had pled guilty to "involuntary manslaughter."
A jury found three security guards not guilty of involuntary manslaughter for the death of the 25-year-old man.
During closing arguments, Maree's attorney Wright Blake criticized the Attorney General's Office for charging the case eight years after Cochran's death. The right to a speedy trial is a right for a reason, he said, and their rights were violated in this case.
"They had it all (the evidence) 10 years ago," Blake said. "There were no charges, there was no negligence. So what changed between 2014 and 2021? ... They didn’t have enough 10 years ago, they didn't have enough two years ago and it clearly doesn’t show beyond a reasonable doubt now."
But Logan said "justice delayed should never be justice denied."
Gaven King, John Seiberling and Aaron Maree all broke down in tears after the jury delivered their not guilty verdict
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