Trial begins for three Detroit security guards accused of killing a man in a mall 10 years ago

PONTIAC, Michigan (AP) — Security guards at a suburban Detroit mall failed their training and ignored a man's repeated cries for help during a violent physical struggle that resulted in his death, a prosecutor said Monday at the opening of a trial more than a decade after the crime.

“I can't breathe,” McKenzie Cochran told guards as he was handcuffed to the floor at Northland Center in 2014, Assistant Attorney General Robyn Liddell told jurors.

“For 11 minutes, the defendants held McKenzie face down on the ground with their entire body weight on him,” Liddell said. “For 11 minutes, McKenzie cried. For 11 minutes, McKenzie screamed.”

“They ignore his pleas. They ignore his cries for help. They ignore his gasps,” she said.

Cochran, 25, who suffered from an enlarged heart, died of asphyxiation, according to an autopsy.

“It was not a fair fight. It was five against one,” Liddell said, telling jurors the video would be part of the evidence.

John Seiberling, Gaven King and Aaron Maree are charged with manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

Another guard, Lucius Hamilton, pleaded guilty on Friday after the judge said she would likely favor a 90-day jail sentence.

In 2014, the then Oakland County prosecutor declined to file charges after consulting with the U.S. Department of Justice. But Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel stepped in with her own charges in 2021.

The case of Cochran, who was black, attracted renewed attention in 2020 as part of a local race for district attorney, amid outrage over the death of George Floyd, a black man pinned to the ground by Minneapolis police.

On January 28, 2014, the owner of a jewelry store called mall security and reported that Cochran was acting “crazy” and had threatened to kill someone. Seiberling and a senior security guard, Gary Chaffin, ordered Cochran to leave the mall, but he did not comply.

Cochran charged at Chaffin, who sprayed him with pepper spray. Prosecutors acknowledged that Cochran “actively resisted” the guards and “overpowered” them. Three more guards arrived and all five ended up on the ground with him.

Cochran was lying motionless and handcuffed behind his back when Southfield police arrived.

“Are McKenzie Cochran's words frightening? Absolutely,” Liddell said, referring to the first confrontation with the jeweler. “But are his words a crime? Absolutely not.”

Defense attorneys asked the jury to examine each security guard individually. Doraid Elder said King was only 22 years old in 2014 – “a kid” – and was simply trying to control Cochran's hand during the fight.

“It is important not to let emotions guide us in this case,” he said.

Another lawyer, Wright Blake, said Maree also only grabbed Cochran's wrist.

“You won't hear anything about him putting his weight on this man and kicking him. … And they want to charge him with murder or manslaughter,” Blake said.

Seiberling's attorney, Keefe Braxton, said Cochran was very aggressive.

“Words are a threat, and threats can become actions. … This man resisted until they put handcuffs on him,” Braxton said.

Chaffin is not part of the case; he died three years later in 2017. The mall no longer exists, having been demolished for redevelopment in 2021.

Many jurors said they could not remember hearing about Cochran's death. Prosecutors acknowledged that a lot of time had passed.

“There will be witnesses who may have memory problems,” Assistant Attorney General LaDonna Logan told the pool.

In 2014, then-District Attorney Jessica Cooper ruled that the security guards' negligence did not constitute a crime.

Cooper believed it would be “difficult to obtain a conviction,” Logan said in a court document. “That view is within the discretion of the prosecutor, but is clearly not shared by the Attorney General.”

Before the trial, Wright said the decision to charge the guards reflected a “politicization of the criminal justice system.”

“This is clearly a result of what happened with George Floyd and police misconduct across the country,” he said in an interview. “This case is just completely different from all the others. This is about security guards just trying to subdue a man with mental health issues.”