Officers ignored dying man at VA prison, feds say. Has family gotten justice?
UPDATE: This article was updated the morning of May 9 to include additional information and a photo of Wade Walters.
A former prison lieutenant is the second sentenced in the death of a man who might’ve lived if staff didn’t ignore his serious medical needs for more than 24 hours, leading him to die on the floor of his cell, according to federal prosecutors.
Wade Walters’ symptoms were “sudden and severe,” beginning the morning of Jan. 9, 2021 — when he lost the ability to speak, stand or walk without falling — at FCI Petersburg Medium, a security facility for men in Virginia, about a 30-mile drive southeast from Richmond, court filings say.
After a series of falls into walls, objects and the floor, along with other alarming signs, Walters, 47, fell a final time at about 6:30 a.m. on Jan. 10, according to prosecutors.
He lay “motionless” in his cell, in the prison’s medical observation unit, as “no correctional officer rendered aid” to him “for nearly an hour and forty minutes,” prosecutors wrote in court filings.
Two prison lieutenants, Shronda Covington and Michael Anderson, who was sentenced in 2023, and a nurse were charged in Walters’ death. A fourth person was acquitted by a jury.
Defense attorneys Fernando Groene and Melissa E. O’Boyle, who represent Covington, told McClatchy News that her career ended with her being charged after her superiors had promoted her.
Groene said in a May 8 statement that Covington has “been served as a scapegoat to take the blame for the entire institution and cover for those directly responsible for Mr. Walters’ death.”
She was the only lieutenant working when Walters’ medical crisis began, according to prosecutors, who argued in filings that her failure to act after she was notified of Walters’ symptoms makes her responsible for his injuries and death.
Her defense attorneys acknowledged in filings that Covington failed to check on Walters during her shift from midnight until 8 a.m.
But they disagree with the government accusing her of causing his death. They wrote in court documents that Covington left the prison before Walters was moved to the medical observation cell, where “the horrific events” up until his death happened in the “12-24 hours after Ms. Covington had left the building.”
Fifteen minutes after Covington’s shift ended, a nurse wrote in a report that Walters didn’t seem to be in distress and had no clear physical injuries. The nurse noted that he seemed unsteady, his speech was unclear and that his cellmate said he fell “on his bottom a couple of times,” but hadn’t hit his head. A doctor was aware of Walters’ situation, according to the nurse, who wrote that staff would keep monitoring him.
No medical professional declared or considered Walters as having a medical emergency during Covington’s shift, the medical report shows, as the nurse left him to be monitored. This report was a major part of Covington’s defense.
In December, a jury found Covington guilty of violating Walters’ civil rights by showing deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs and making false statements to a federal agent, McClatchy News reported.
The jury’s verdict form shows they found her conduct resulted in Walters’ “bodily injury,” but not death.
The distinction is important, according to Groene and O’Boyle. They argue other prison personnel supervising Walters, whom they accuse of witnessing his falls, haven’t been charged.
“Although the government sought to hold Ms. Covington responsible for W.W.’s death — which occurred approximately 24 hours after she left the facility and after dozens of BOP Lieutenants, Officers, and Medical Personnel encountered him and did nothing — the jury did not.”
Daniel Richman, a Columbia Law School professor and former federal prosecutor, told McClatchy News in an interview that “the fact that the government could have charged other people really doesn’t change the culpability of the people they did charge.”
While not familiar with the specifics of Walters’ death, Richman said the “interest of justice really does serve if those most culpable were charged.”
When the government decides whom to prosecute based on culpability, Richman explained, the decision can be debatable. He said “prosecutors think twice” before bringing cases against several defendants, such as 20 for example, as those cases can generally be tough to manage.
Covington is sentenced
At Covington’s sentencing on May 7, the judge sentenced her to one year in prison, records show. She was handed two 12-month sentences for the civil rights charge and the false statements charge to be served concurrently.She’s to serve one year of home confinement after her prison term and three years of supervised release, the Justice Department said in a May 8 news release.
The judge disagreed with the prosecutor’s recommendation of a sentence between 8 years and 1 month in prison to 10 years and 1 month.
In court filings, Covington’s defense attorneys named lieutenants and officers who they said witnessed Walters repeatedly fall in suicide watch after Covington’s shift ended and weren’t charged. They told McClatchy News these employees didn’t face any disciplinary actions.
“I think it is a travesty of justice to make a woman a felon and send her to prison, a woman who gave 16 years of her life to the Bureau of Prisons, who had nothing to do with this man’s death, who in fact, when she left work that day, he had no injuries,” Groene said after Covington’s sentencing.
He also said “at least five males who were working and seeing (Walters) fall repeatedly, up to 23 times, and did nothing” are “free.”
The government sought a sentence for Covington that was lengthier than the three-year sentence issued to Anderson, the other lieutenant, in November 2023.
Attorney Jessica Richardson, who represented Anderson, acknowledged that though he had a duty to get Walters help as a high-ranking officer, he didn’t. However, she wrote Walters’ death was caused by “collective failure of the staff at the facility.”
Richardson declined McClatchy News’ request for comment May 8.
Walters’ niece, Toni Cinadr, spoke at Anderson’s sentencing. In a statement, she described Walters as someone who was more like a brother to her.
Cinadr told McClatchy News on May 8 that she feels “they are all responsible for Wade’s death.”
“They were lazy and it was fatal for him,” Cinadr wrote in a handwritten note.
When asked whether other FCI Petersburg Medium employees faced any repercussions over Walters’ death, Stephen Maynard, the executive assistant of the entire Petersburg prison complex, told McClatchy News on May 7 that “for privacy reasons, we do not confirm or deny whether a specific employee was or is currently on administrative leave or otherwise disciplined.”
Maynard also said the facility doesn’t comment on matters involved in legal proceedings.
Who was Wade Walters?
As a Davenport, Iowa, native, Walters was the youngest of six children and the only boy, according to Cinadr.
She described him as “loving & caring” in her note.
Cinadr wrote that Walters “would do anything he could to help people and most of the time he would be taken advantage of because he was (mentally) slow.”
Walters was in prison because he was convicted of a child pornography charge, Maynard confirmed.
Cinadr believes he was wrongly convicted. She said he was “scared into” pleading guilty.
With his death and the criminal court proceedings, Cinadr wrote “this has been hard on the family knowing he was falsely accused & paid the price with his life.”
“We will never hear his voice, get to see him & never see his smile again.”
As for prison staff, Cinadr said “(they) purposely did not do their job.”
“I also feel that Wade is not the only one in federal prison that has died due to neglect from the staff,” Cinadr added.
The same concern has been expressed by FCI Petersburg Medium inmates over the years.
Complaints of medical neglect
Nearly a year following Walters’ death, FCI Petersburg Medium was inspected in December 2021. Findings were later released in a September 2022 report by the District of Columbia Corrections Information Council.
Inmates asked about medical care gave mixed opinions, the report notes. The most common medical-related complaints were about “delays to requests for care.”
Of 15 individuals who shared their experiences, seven said “that it takes too long to be seen” by medical staff.
“Five individuals raised concerns about residents dying due to lack of medical care: ‘lots of deaths due to medical doing nothing,’” the report says.
In 2014, during an earlier inspection of the same facility, inmates made similar comments, leading the D.C. Corrections Information Council to recommend the prison to hire more doctors.
“Inmates have lost their life because of the lack of care,” one inmate said, according to the council’s report published nearly two years after that inspection. “They had conditions that could have been treated.”
Maynard told McClatchy News that the BOP and staff at FCI Petersburg Medium “take seriously our duty to protect the inmates entrusted in our custody.”
He said individuals incarcerated at the Virginia facility are able to receive chronic and emergency medical care, as well as make appointments.
Walters’ autopsy report found a lack of medical attention “contributed to his death” and that he died of blunt force head trauma, according to prosecutors, who said other inmates’ calls for help went unanswered.
The day before he died, his cellmate expressed concern that Walters “was not doing well,” court documents say.
Nurse charged
In December, Covington’s co-defendant, Tonya Farley, who was a nurse at FCI Petersburg Medium, was found not guilty of showing deliberate indifference to Walters’ serious medical needs, McClatchy News reported.
She was, however, convicted of making false statements to a federal agent.
On May 8, Farley was sentenced to six months in prison, six months home confinement and three years of supervised release, according to the Justice Department.
Like Covington, Farley filed motions for acquittal and a new trial ahead of sentencing. The motions were denied May 5, records show.
In a sentencing memorandum, Farley’s defense attorneys accuse the government of “misconduct” and tricking her “into making false statements.”
Covington’s attorneys have similarly criticized the government’s handling of the case in filings reviewed by McClatchy News.
Groene and O’Boyle plan to appeal her sentence, they told McClatchy News.
In a statement, Groene said Walters’ family, in court, had to watch “the horrendous video of him repeatedly falling down” and that they’re “now aware that the government consciously allowed those responsible for his death to escape punishment.”
“Justice has not been served,” he added.
Cinadr, in her note to McClatchy News, wrote: “It pisses us off knowing (Walters) is dead.”
It also angers Cinadr and her family knowing that prison staff “will only do a few years in prison if at all,” she said.
This story was originally published May 8, 2025 at 1:35 PM with the headline "Officers ignored dying man at VA prison, feds say. Has family gotten justice?."
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