Charles Givens
Charles Givens was 52, and his sister Kymberly Hobbs, who had cared for him for more than a decade as his legal guardian, described him as someone who needed a great deal of support after a traumatic brain injury in childhood. He died in February 2022 while held at the Marion Correctional Treatment Center in Virginia, where he was found dead on his cot in his cell on February 5, 2022. The Virginia Department of Corrections called the death natural, while the state medical examiner's office found blunt force trauma to the torso, and an updated autopsy later listed it as a homicide. His sister's federal lawsuit alleges that officers beat him in a shower room and that the death was covered up; the officers have denied the allegations, and the defense said he had a seizure and fell. In April 2025 a federal jury found the former officers not liable, and the FBI said it had opened an investigation.
Cause of death, as reported: Killed by staff (disputed; neglect alleged). The Virginia Department of Corrections called the death natural, while the medical examiner found blunt force trauma of the torso and his sister's federal lawsuit alleges officers beat him in a shower room; the amended complaint also alleges a captain and former warden ignored evidence of abuse and failed to discipline officers.
Reported by: Virginia Department of Corrections (the agency that held him); State Medical Examiner (medical examiner or coroner); Assistant Chief Medical Examiner Eli Goodman (medical examiner or coroner); his sister Kymberly Hobbs and her attorneys, in a federal lawsuit (family or their lawyers).
Lawsuit: His sister sued five former correctional officers in federal court, alleging they beat him to death, and a federal jury found the officers not liable in April 2025; no settlement was reported.
Sources (6)
- They said her disabled brother died in prison naturally. A lawsuit alleges otherwise
- Lawsuit accuses correctional officers in Marion of brutally beating inmate to death
- Marion correctional officers accused in federal lawsuit of brutally beating inmate to death
- 2 Virginia prison supervisors named in death of a disabled inmate in amended suit
- A 3-year legal saga over an inmate's death has its final day in court
- Jury clears 5 former Va. corrections officers in inmate’s 2022 death