Your browser doesn’t support audio playback.
A second correctional officer has been sentenced for his role in the coverup of an inmate’s death.
Chad Lester, a former Lieutenant at the Southern Regional Jail (SRJ), was sentenced Thursday to 17 years and six months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release.
Lester was convicted in January for his role in covering up an assault by correctional officers that resulted in the death of inmate Quantez Burks on March 1, 2022.
According to a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia, Lester threatened subordinate officers with violence and retaliation, added false statements to multiple officers’ reports, instructed officers to give a false cover story to investigators, and personally gave false statements to internal and federal investigators.
“On the defendant’s watch, correctional officers killed an inmate, and the defendant conspired with them to cover up their crimes,” acting U.S. Attorney Lisa G. Johnston said. “The defendant violated the public’s trust in the law enforcement system he had sworn to uphold.”
This is the second sentencing in this case where seven correctional officers pleaded guilty in connection with the assault of Burks. Former SRJ correctional officer Steven Nicholas Wimmer, 25, of Bluefield, was sentenced to nine years in prison on May 8.
Sentencing hearings for the remaining officers are scheduled for June and July.