Two Indianapolis police officers were found not guilty Dec. 6 of involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide and battery in the death of Herman Whitfield III after a weeklong trial.
The 12-member jury took only about two hours to reach its verdict.
At the center of the case was whether Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers Adam Ahmad and Steven Sanchez acted recklessly in a way that caused Whitfield’s death.
Sanchez and Ahmad sat expressionless as Marion Superior Judge Charles Miller read the jury’s verdict.
Outside the courtroom, Marion County prosecutors walked briskly past reporters, declining to answer questions. Whitfield’s parents — Herman Whitfield Jr. and Gladys Whitfield — also declined to comment.
John Kautzman, a defense attorney representing the two IMPD officers, said the evidence was “crystal clear.”
“They did the best they could under difficult circumstances to follow their policies, to follow the law and to try to help this person and get him to a point where he could be transported to the hospital,” Kautzman told reporters outside the courtroom. “It’s a tragedy when someone has a heart attack in the course of tussling with police, but it doesn’t mean the police did anything wrong, and it certainly doesn’t mean they did anything criminal.”
The family is also pursuing a civil suit against the officers and the city of Indianapolis. Kautzman said he will be part of the defense team should that case proceed.
Ahmad and Sanchez, who declined to comment after the verdict, were two of six officers who responded to the Whitfield home on April 25, 2022, after Whitfield’s mother called 911 as her son was experiencing a mental health crisis.
After an investigation, a grand jury indicted the officers, who maintained their innocence throughout the trial.
If convicted, they would have faced up to six years in prison.
How the jury reached the verdict
In closing arguments, the defense argued that the officers’ actions in the face of Whitfield’s unpredictable and erratic behavior were “objectively reasonable” and therefore they could not be held criminally responsible for Whitfield’s death.
They pointed to the four medical experts who testified during the trial that Whitfield died before officers finished handcuffing him.
“Every single medical expert agreed that Herman Whitfield’s heart stopped prior to cuffing,” said attorney P. Mason Riley. “If he dies while they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing, and if he dies for reasons unbeknownst to them, then they cannot be held criminally liable for that.”
Prosecutors argued that Whitfield was kept in the prone position for longer than necessary, contributing to his death.
“It was their choice to have him down on the ground and handcuff him,” Marion County Deputy Prosecutor Janna Skelton said. “It was their choice to keep him there, and it was that choice — that touching, that force — that was the crime. It is their actions that killed him that day.”
Prosecutors also pointed to the results of an autopsy that found Whitfield died of cardiac arrest while under police restraint. The pathologist, who also testified this week, ruled Whitfield’s death as a homicide.
Whitfield’s parents say they heard Whitfield say “can’t breathe”; all six officers testified that they did not hear Whitfield say those words, though the pathologist who performed the autopsy said he heard him say it on body camera footage.
Whitfield was remembered by friends and family as a talented pianist and composer. His death spurred calls from Black faith leaders to rethink the way police officers respond to and handle certain mental health situations and rethink the treatment of Black men by police.
IMPD has a Mobile Crisis Assistance Team unit that pairs an officer with a paramedic and licensed mental health professional to respond to mental health-related calls, though none of the teams was available when Gladys Whitfield rang 911.
MCAT operates from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday
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