Six Warren Care Center Workers Plead Guilty To Misdemeanor, Get Probation In Resident’s Death

WARREN, Ark. — Six workers at the state-run Southeast Arkansas Human Development Center pleaded guilty Wednesday to misdemeanor negligent homicide in the death of Zachary Moore, a 21-year-old resident who died after staff held him face down and a nurse injected him with an antipsychotic drug, and each was placed on probation, court records show.

Moore, who had a rare genetic disorder and the mental capacity of a 5-year-old, according to his mother, died Sept. 7, 2025, at the Warren center, which houses adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The state medical examiner ruled that his death was caused by “physiologic stress associated with struggle and prone restraint,” according to the autopsy report as quoted in court filings.

Chekiona Lasha Jones, 48, Marquez Shabazz Williams, 30, Karen Denise Furlough, 52, Neeyo Stephan Harding, 20, Mark Anthony Thomas, 59, and Victor Adil Booker, 33, all of Warren, were each charged in March with manslaughter and neglect of a vulnerable person in Moore’s death. Manslaughter is punishable by five to 20 years in prison.

During what the Arkansas Department of Human Services called a “behavior incident,” Moore was held face down for nearly 13 minutes and then injected with the antipsychotic Geodon, according to DHS findings and his family. Thomas and Williams had their hands on Moore’s back during the face-down restraint, Harding grabbed his wrist and arm, and Booker held his legs at about 6:42 p.m., according to defense motions that cite the facility’s surveillance video and the Arkansas Attorney General’s case file. A registered nurse gave the injection at 7:04 p.m., the motions said.

Under plea agreements, prosecutors reduced the manslaughter count to negligent homicide and dropped the neglect charge in each case, according to sentencing orders signed by Circuit Judge Crews Puryear and filed Thursday in Bradley County Circuit Court. Each of the six was placed on one year of unsupervised probation, fined $2,000 plus court costs and ordered to have no contact with Moore’s family. Their probation conditions also bar them from working in the medical field.

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All six were sentenced under the state’s first-offender law, so the judge deferred further proceedings without entering a judgment of guilt, the orders show. Under that law, a defendant who completes probation has the charge dismissed and may have the record sealed.

The sentences match the recommendation prosecutors filed in each case. Negligent homicide carries up to one year in the county jail. Moore’s mother, Angela Stephens, was in Bradley County for Wednesday’s hearing, 5NEWS reported.

What the filings say happened

DHS said in October 2025 that staff used physical and chemical restraints on Moore and failed to follow protocol, The Arkadelphian reported. The nurse sent a text message to a supervising nurse practitioner before the injection that the Attorney General’s case file describes as containing inaccurate information about Moore’s condition, according to the defense motions.

The nurse told the nurse practitioner by text that Moore was in a “humane wrap,” a type of restraint device, and the injection was ordered based on that information, according to DHS’s report on the death, Little Rock Public Radio reported.

Several defendants argued before the pleas that the state had never said what each of them did wrong. Furlough’s lawyer said in a motion that she did not take part in the physical restraint and left the unit while other staff were still restraining Moore. Thomas’s lawyer wrote that Thomas did not work at that unit, did not know Moore and had been sent over by a supervisor at another unit to help. Jones, a shift manager, was not seen on the surveillance video physically restraining Moore, according to a motion filed by her lawyer.

The defense filings also quoted the center’s administrator as saying, in DHS’s internal investigation, that staff “do not receive formal training in prone restraint” and were only verbally told to avoid it when possible. Training material issued Sept. 24, 2025, 17 days after Moore’s death, said, “At NO TIME are clients to be placed in personal restraint holds on their stomachs,” according to the motion filed by Thomas’s lawyer.

Nurse’s case still pending

Ashley Michelle Marshall, 37, of Monticello, the nurse who gave the injection, was charged separately in April with criminal attempt to commit abuse of a vulnerable person. Prosecutors allege she gave Moore a chemical restraint “under circumstances that were not necessary for the immediate safety of the vulnerable person, another patient, or staff,” according to the charge filed against her. The charge is punishable by three to 10 years in prison.

Marshall has pleaded not guilty. She is represented by lawyer Stewart Whaley and has a pretrial hearing Dec. 8, according to court records. Her trial is set to begin Jan. 27, 5NEWS reported.

Settlement and hearing

Stephens reached a $725,000 settlement with DHS before filing suit, according to Bradley County probate records. A judge approved the settlement in March.

In May, Stephens testified before a joint legislative committee, where DHS officials said 13 staff members had been fired over the death and the center’s administration had been replaced. “I’m here because the next Zachary that is in the facility right now is not safe,” she told lawmakers, Little Rock Public Radio reported.

“Money doesn’t bring Zachary back, but change can help the next Zachary,” Stephens told Law&Crime in June.

The court file

The cases are assigned to Circuit Judge Crews Puryear. They were prosecuted by 10th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Frank Spain’s office, with Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys William Bridewell and David Harrod. None of the six was booked into jail. Each was ordered to court by summons.

Lawyers of record are Dermott lawyer Chuck Gibson for Jones, Public Defender Tim Leonard for Williams, lawyer Wesley Rhodes for Furlough, Little Rock lawyers Daniel Marks and Bobby Forrest Jr. for Harding, Pine Bluff lawyer Jesse Kearney for Thomas and lawyer Thomas Brown for Booker.