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Burks was an inmate at the state-run Southern Regional Jail and Correctional Facility, which has a history of disproportionately frequent inmate deaths that has drawn the ire of advocates for the incarcerated.

The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin, who predicted — in an opinion Thursday — the sentence would serve as notice that “prison walls will not shield wrongdoing, and official authority will not excuse lawlessness.�

Kimberly Burks of Beckley, Quantez’s mother, agreed in a phone interview Friday.

“They’ve got to stop doing this,� she said. “This stuff has to end.�

‘The defendant violated the public’s trust’

In November 2023, a grand jury charged Lester and five other defendants who served as Southern Regional correctional officers with causing Quantez Burks’ death by conspiring to injure him and then providing false information to investigators.

Jacob Boothe, Mark Holdren, Corey Snyder, Ashley Toney and Johnathan Walters subsequently pleaded guilty and await sentencing for their roles as correctional officers in connection to Quantez Burks’ March 1, 2022, death. Only Lester went to trial. He faced up to 45 years in prison following his conviction in January.

The charges against Lester came after guilty pleas in November 2023 from Andrew Fleshman and Steven Nicholas Wimmer to conspiring, as Southern Regional correctional officers, to use unreasonable force against Quantez Burks, assaulting and injuring him while he was restrained, handcuffed and posed no threat.

Wimmer, 25, of Bluefield, was sentenced last week to nine years in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release.

“On the defendant’s watch, correctional officers killed an inmate, and the defendant conspired with them to cover up their crimes,� Lisa Johnston, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia, said in a statement Thursday. “The defendant violated the public’s trust in the law enforcement system he had sworn to uphold.�

The jury that convicted Lester heard evidence that Southern Regional correctional officers used “blind spots� to punish inmates with unreasonable force and avoid the consequences, Goodwin noted in his opinion Thursday, also recalling that Lester, a lieutenant in the jail, directed lower-ranked officers to write false reports and relay false cover stories about the incident to investigators.

“This case illustrates the horrific conduct that is happening in our jails and prisons,� Goodwin wrote. “Too often these unconstitutional abuses go unnoticed and unpunished. No more.�

The West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation listed Quantez Burks as one of 18 inmates to die of heart disease in one of the state’s 10 regional jails since the start of 2020, according to agency data previously obtained by the Gazette-Mail through a state Freedom of Information Act request.

But Kimberly Burks insisted her son was killed by correctional officers at the jail prior to charges being brought, sharply questioning then-Gov. Jim Justice at a January 2023 town hall in Beckley over the state’s oversight of her son.

Kimberly Burks said an autopsy report conducted by a Pittsburgh pathologist contradicted the state’s determination that he died of natural causes, instead finding that her son had a heart attack due to stress brought on by blunt force trauma.

“Most definitely, we have come a long way,� she said, adding that she was “completely satisfied with everything� the Department of Justice has done in its prosecution of the defendants.

Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesperson Andy Malinoski did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

“I personally think he should have got hung,� Kimberly Burks said of Lester. “But we can’t hang him, you know what I’m saying? So I just don’t know. I’m satisfied with it.�

Southern Regional Jail’s historically high death count

There has been a disproportionately high number of deaths at Southern Regional Jail.

Seven of 2023’s 16 recorded deaths of incarcerated people in West Virginia regional jails occurred at Southern Regional, which was the site of 38 — or 20% — of the 187 recorded deaths at the regional jails from 2009 through 2023, according to state data obtained by the Gazette-Mail via a Freedom of Information Act request.

West Virginia has 10 regional jails that serve all 55 counties.

Last year, a federal court approved a $4 million-plus settlement the state reached in a class-action lawsuit filed in August 2023 by plaintiffs who have been inmates at Southern Regional Jail and who alleged deplorable conditions there.

The state also agreed last year to pay $100,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging state corrections employees contributed to the September 2022 death of Southern Regional Jail inmate Alvin Shrewsbury.

Shrewsbury, 45, died following incarceration at Southern Regional Jail marked by brutal acts of violence from other inmates, and correctional officer and health care staff indifference to his health and safety, according to the lawsuit filed by Shrewsbury’s daughter Miranda Smith.

‘This is where I wanted to be’

Goodwin wrote in his opinion that his 30 years on the bench have convinced him that many instances of mistreatment behind prison walls “remain buried beneath layers of bureaucracy and institutional protection.�

Goodwin highlighted by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance indicating that over 25,000 people in custody, including those under arrest, incarcerated or detained, died from fiscal years 2020 through 2023.

Of 25,393 deaths, 19,743, or 78%, occurred in prisons or jails.

“I regret that our society has seemed to grow comfortable with the idea that the incarcerated are less than human and undeserving of basic constitutional rights,� Goodwin wrote.

Kimberly Burks plans to attend sentencing hearings for the remaining six defendants who have pleaded guilty to roles in Quantez Burks’ death, including five scheduled to be held before Goodwin next month.

“This is where I wanted to be,� she said. “It took almost three years to get it.�