Jason Rothe
Jason Rothe, 50, had a serious mental illness and was held in the Secure Psychiatric Unit at the New Hampshire State Prison for Men in Concord. On April 29, 2023, corrections officers moved to remove him from a dayroom during an extraction, and his estate's federal wrongful death lawsuit, brought by his sister Aimee Khatib, says officers used tasers and strikes and kept him face down after he was handcuffed. The medical examiner ruled his death a homicide from compressional and positional asphyxiation, while the defense has said he died of a heart attack. A former officer, Matthew Millar, was tried for second-degree murder and acquitted in 2025, and the lawsuit also accuses a former corrections commissioner of interfering with the investigations.
Cause of death, as reported: Killed by staff (disputed; neglect alleged). The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide from compressional and positional asphyxiation, prosecutors say a corrections officer's knee on his back caused it, and his estate's federal lawsuit says officers used tasers, strikes and prone restraint and kept him face-down after he was handcuffed, while the defense says he died of a heart attack; the lawsuit also says a former commissioner interfered with the investigations.
Reported by: state medical examiner; prosecutors in the Merrimack County Superior Court case (court); defense attorney Jordan Strand (family or their lawyers); his estate's federal wrongful death lawsuit (family or their lawyers); New Hampshire prosecutors (outside investigators).
Lawsuit: His estate filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit over his death in the Secure Psychiatric Unit.
News reports (11)
- Lawyers want to question former NH corrections chief in trial over prison death
- State Doesn’t Want Ex-DOC Head Helen Hanks Questioned in Prison Guard Murder Trial
- DOC Nurse Gets Immunity Deal Ahead of Prison Murder Trial
- Trial starts for former guard accused in 2023 death at NH's Secure Psychiatric Unit
- Former prison guard stands trial in death of patient at NH’s Secure Psychiatric Unit
- State’s Witness Disciplined for Lying During Rothe Prison Death Investigation
- “A failure of supervision” — In murder trial, defense argues institutional shortcomings at Department of Corrections failed Matthew Millar
- Matthew Millar Not Guilty in Jason Rothe’s Death in Prison Secure Psychiatric Unit
- ‘He’s coming home’: Jury acquits former prison guard Matthew Millar in murder trial
- Department of Corrections Murder Case Wiped From Records
- Sister of Jason Rothe files wrongful death lawsuit against NH prison guards, nearly three years after his death