Two former Colorado sheriff's deputy officers were convicted of intoxicating a man and placing him on his stomach before squeezing him into the van to transport him to a detox centre.
The death of Demetrius Shankling (23-year-old) was the subject of an investigation by the Longmont Times-Call.
According to an arrest warrant, the man was placed at 6 feet (1.8 meters) in height with his hands behind his back in a compartment less than 5 feet (1.55 meters) long.
O'Brien, Lunn, and Shankling had to press the compartment door shut, according to the affidavit.
Shankling wasn't breathing when they arrived at the detox center in the early hours on Sept. 9th 2018.
Christian Gardner-Wood, Senior Deputy District Attorney, said that he died after 27 days in a coma. Shankling was found to have died from suffocation due to his position, which included alcohol and ammonia.
The prosecution stated that O'Brien & Lunn acted recklessly, and they ignored their training in positional asphyxia. Carrie Slinkard, the men's lawyer, claimed that the van was not well-known to the former deputies who were on an additional shift.
The sheriff's department was responsible for taking people to detox on that weekend, as students just returned to Colorado. She also stated to jurors that the city and university police wanted their officers to remain on patrol.
Slinkard replayed audio starting at the time Shankling was unconscious by the deputies.
"Based on what we heard, it is clear that they were worried," she said. She said that it was a tragedy but an accident.