Maryland AG’s Office Outlines Process for Reviewing 41 Restraint Involved Deaths Initially Cleared by Medical Examiner

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office (OAG) has detailed a comprehensive, case-by-case approach to reviewing 41 deaths that occurred during or after the use of restraints, which a prior audit found should have been classified as homicides rather than by the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME). This independent review aims to determine if further criminal investigations are warranted for each of these cases, spanning many months due to the detailed nature of the examination.

As the OAG conducts its reviews, a key component will be the direct notification of the decedent’s families. Once an individual case review is complete, the OAG intends to send a written notification to the family or their legal representative. This notification will detail the preliminary findings of the OAG’s review and will grant the family a 30-day period to submit any additional information or evidence they deem relevant. Following this period and the consideration of any submitted materials, the OAG will make a final determination and inform the family of its findings. Subsequently, an individual press release will be issued to publicly announce the outcome for each case. Families will also be offered the opportunity to personally review the investigative case file. The OAG plans to reach out to all 41 families involved in this process.

The current review stems from a significant audit released in May 2025, which examined in-custody death determinations made by the OCME between 2003 and 2019. This audit, a first of its kind in the nation, analyzed a subset of 87 cases involving deaths during or after restraint from a larger pool of over 1,300 in-custody deaths investigated by the OCME. The audit’s findings indicated significant discrepancies, with independent forensic reviewers disagreeing with the OCME’s original classifications in 44 of the 87 reviewed cases. Notably, in 36 of these cases, all three independent reviewers unanimously concluded that the deaths should have been categorized as homicides. An additional five cases saw two out of the three independent reviewers reaching the same homicide classification. It is important to note that a homicide classification, according to the National Association of Medical Examiners, signifies that a death resulted from a volitional act by another person, but it does not inherently establish criminal intent or culpability, which are matters determined through the legal process. Since the release of the audit, the OCME has not altered the manner or cause of death certification in any of the 41 cases now under OAG review.

Name	Year of Death	County	OCME MOD	Audit MOD
Shawn Floyd	2018	Anne Arundel	Undetermined	Homicide
Gregory Williams	2003	Baltimore City	Undetermined	No Consensus (2 of 3)
Shawn Bryant	2004	Baltimore City	Undetermined	No Consensus (2 of 3)
Rodney Wilson	2005	Baltimore City	Undetermined	Homicide
Dondi Johnson	2005	Baltimore City	Accident	Homicide
William Washington	2006	Baltimore City	Undetermined	Homicide
Carlos Branch	2007	Baltimore City	Undetermined	Homicide
Thomas Campbell	2007	Baltimore City	Undetermined	Homicide
Eric Dorsey	2011	Baltimore City	Natural	Homicide
Don Thomas	2011	Baltimore City	Undetermined	Homicide
Jontae Daughtry	2011	Baltimore City	Undetermined	Homicide
Tyrone West	2013	Baltimore City	Undetermined	Homicide
Ricky Artis	2014	Baltimore City	Undetermined	Homicide
George King	2014	Baltimore City	Natural	Homicide
Antonio Moreno	2014	Baltimore City	Undetermined	Homicide
Thomas Rawls	2006	Baltimore County	Undetermined	Homicide
Ryan Meyers	2007	Baltimore County	Undetermined	Homicide
Carl Johnson	2010	Baltimore County	Undetermined	Homicide
Mary Croker	2010	Baltimore County	Undetermined	Homicide
Tawon Boyd	2016	Baltimore County	Accident	Homicide
Dominic Edwards	2018	Carroll	Undetermined	Homicide
Jarrel Gray	2007	Frederick	Undetermined	Homicide
Anthony Casarella	2007	Frederick	Undetermined	Homicide
Terrance Watts	2018	Frederick	Accident	Homicide
David Matarazzo	2007	Harford	Undetermined	No Consensus (2 of 3)
George Barnes	2007	Montgomery	Undetermined	Homicide
Kareem Ali	2010	Montgomery	Undetermined	Homicide
Delric East	2011	Montgomery	Accident	Homicide
Anthony Howard	2013	Montgomery	Undetermined	Homicide
Ricardo Manning	2019	Montgomery	Undetermined	Homicide
Cedric Gilmore	2004	Prince George’s	Undetermined	Homicide
James Jackson	2003	Prince George’s	Undetermined	Homicide
Marcus Skinner	2007	Prince George’s	Undetermined	No Consensus (2 of 3)
Alexis Caston	2007	Prince George’s	Undetermined	Homicide
Deontre Dorsey	2015	Prince George’s	Undetermined	Homicide
Anton Black	2018	Caroline	Accident	Homicide
Theodore Rosenberry	2006	Washington	Undetermined	Homicide
James Adell	2013	Washington	Undetermined	No Consensus (2 of 3)
Darrell Brown	2015	Washington	Undetermined	Homicide
Ronald Byler	2005	Wicomico	Undetermined	Homicide
Yekuna McDonald	2012	Worcester	Undetermined	Homicide

The OAG is undertaking this review following Governor Wes Moore’s Executive Order. The 41 cases under examination include individuals such as Shawn Floyd, Gregory Williams, Shawn Bryant, Rodney Wilson, and Dondi Johnson, among others, with years of death ranging from 2003 to 2019 and listed counties of jurisdiction as varied as Anne Arundel, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Carroll, Frederick, Harford, Montgomery, Prince George’s, Caroline, Washington, Wicomico, and Worcester. The “Audit MOD” column in the detailed case list indicates whether the independent reviewers unanimously determined the death should be classified as a homicide or if there was a consensus of two out of three reviewers.

Families with questions regarding whether their loved one’s case is among those impacted by the OCME audit are encouraged to contact the Office of the Attorney General directly. This can be done via email at OCMEAuditHotline@oag.state.md.us or by calling the OAG’s OCME Audit Hotline at 833-282-0961.

Article by Mel Anara, based upon information from the Maryland Office of the Attorney General.

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