A jury has found former Boulder County, Colorado, sheriff’s deputies James O’Brien and Adam Lunn guilty of manslaughter in the death of Demetrius Shankling. The two took Shankling, who was handcuffed and intoxicated, to a detox center. They placed Shankling, who was 6 feet tall, stomach down in a van in a compartment that was less than 5 feet long. They pressed on the door to close it, forcing Shankling’s legs to wedge up against the door. When they arrived at the detox center, Shankling was not breathing. An autopsy ruled that Shankling died of positional asphyxiation, with alcohol and amphetamine as contributing factors.
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