The David McMurray indictment alleges that Wallens Ridge State Prison correctional officer David McMurray violated 18 U.S.C. § 242 (deprivation of rights under color of law), alleging he used handcuffs to repeatedly strike an incarcerated person in the head on June 18, 2022. The case surfaced publicly in October 2025, and the court has continued trial into May 2026.

David McMurray indictment: why the Wallens Ridge case stayed hidden

A federal grand jury has charged David McMurray, a correctional officer at Wallens Ridge State Prison, with Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law (18 U.S.C. § 242), based on an alleged assault prosecutors say occurred on or about June 18, 2022.

Public coverage of the case has been scant. The only reporting we’ve seen was a brief local item that summarized the indictment in a few sentences— naming the charge and allegation, but offering no links to the filings and no broader context about how long allegations can circulate before the public ever hears a word. (Mountain Top Media)

And the record shows that secrecy began at the start: on October 7, 2025, the United States filed a motion asking the court to seal the indictment and “all related documents” until further order. (Motion to seal (PDF))

In a closed institution, that information gap is not accidental. Names blur, dates drift, and the paper trail is buried under delay, procedure, and paywalls. UPROAR is publishing the underlying filings in this case not because the court record is the only truth, but because it is one of the few places the state cannot fully control what becomes visible.

What’s new here: the filings add the docket, the government’s motion to seal the indictment at the outset, the release order, the trial-delay order, and the earlier civil record where this name appears — showing how allegations can recur while technical rules short-circuit public scrutiny.

What the David McMurray indictment alleges (18 U.S.C. § 242)

The criminal case is docketed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia (Abingdon Division) as United States v. David McMurray, No. 1:25-cr-00046-TTC-PMS.

• On or about June 18, 2022, while acting under color of law, David McMurray allegedly used handcuffs to repeatedly strike an incarcerated person (“D.B.”) in the head.
• The indictment states the conduct resulted in bodily injury and involved the use of a dangerous weapon.
• The charge is 18 U.S.C. § 242 — Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law.

David McMurray indictment timeline: 2022 → 2025 → 2026

• Alleged assault: June 18, 2022
• Federal indictment & arrest warrant: October 7, 2025
• Government motion to seal indictment: October 7, 2025
• Initial appearance & arraignment: October 9, 2025
• Initial appearance & release order: October 9, 2025
• Trial continued to: May 11–13, 2026 (order entered Nov. 10, 2025)

Pretrial release: the system’s trust in its own

The indictment alleges McMurray—acting under color of law—used handcuffs to repeatedly strike an incarcerated person in the head, causing bodily injury and involving a dangerous weapon. Yet two days later, the court’s release order directs the U.S. Marshal that the defendant is “ORDERED released after processing.” That contrast matters: when violence is alleged under state authority, the system often extends immediate pretrial freedom and credibility to the accused—while the people subjected to that authority are treated as disposable.

In a closed institution, delay is not neutral. A multi-year gap between alleged harm and public accountability is one of the primary ways violence is buried and witnesses are isolated.

What 18 U.S.C. § 242 means in a prison excessive-force case

“Deprivation of rights under color of law” is the main federal criminal statute used when a government employee (including prison staff) allegedly uses the power of their position to willfully violate someone’s constitutional rights. It’s not just “misconduct” — it’s an allegation that state authority was used to commit a rights violation. In prisons, §242 cases most often involve alleged excessive force or other serious mistreatment carried out under official authority.

• “Under color of law” means acting with authority made possible by a government role.
• “Willfully” means prosecutors must prove an intentional rights violation (not a mistake or accident).
• Penalties increase when the alleged conduct causes bodily injury or involves a dangerous weapon.

What this case raises about VADOC secrecy and accountability

The indictment alleges the assault occurred in June 2022, yet the case did not become public until October 2025. During that time, McMurray remained employed at Wallens Ridge. That gap raises urgent questions that extend beyond a single incident.

In closed institutions, time creates cover. When serious allegations remain hidden for years, the conditions exist for harm to be repeated, normalized, or concealed.

Immediate public demands

• Preserve and disclose evidence: all available video, incident reports, and use-of-force documentation connected to the alleged June 18, 2022 assault.
• Disclose medical records metadata: dates/times of medical assessment(s) and outside transport (with identifying details protected) to verify when injuries were documented.
• Accountability timeline: when VADOC leadership first learned of the allegation, what internal actions were taken, and whether any records were lost or destroyed.
• Employment and duty history: whether McMurray was placed on administrative leave, reassigned, or remained in regular contact with prisoners after the alleged assault.
• Protection for witnesses: confirmation that alleged victims and witnesses were not retaliated against through segregation, transfer, loss of communication, or disciplinary charges.

Questions that demand answers

• How many others may have been harmed?
  Were there additional use-of-force incidents involving the same officer? Are there patterns in injury reports, medical records, or grievances that were never made public?
• What did Wallens Ridge know — and when?
  Were incident reports written? Was video preserved or destroyed? Were grievances filed and stalled, rejected, or buried?
• Who else was involved or aware?
  Which supervisors approved reports? Who was on shift? Did other officers fail to intervene or participate? Were medical staff pressured to minimize or reframe injuries?
• What happened to the victim and witnesses?
  Were they placed in segregation, transferred, or retaliated against? Were communications with family restricted?

If a correctional officer can allegedly assault someone, remain employed for years, and only face public accountability after federal intervention, then the problem is not just individual misconduct—it is institutional failure.

Earlier Wallens Ridge civil-rights lawsuits naming McMurray

The 2025 indictment did not appear from nowhere. Public filings show McMurray named in earlier prisoner civil rights lawsuits. In those cases, courts typically did not reach findings about whether alleged violence occurred. Instead, claims were blocked on procedural grounds — often under the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), where grievance technicalities can shut a case down before evidence is ever weighed.

• Moore v. McMurray (W.D. Va., 2021): a prisoner alleged McMurray slammed him to the ground and stomped on his restrained hand, breaking it. The case was dismissed on grievance exhaustion rules without adjudicating the allegation. (PDF)
• Taylor v. Ravizee et al. (4th Cir., 2023): McMurray was listed as a defendant in a Wallens Ridge civil rights case. The appeal was dismissed as untimely, leaving the underlying claims unresolved on the merits. (PDF)
• Ofori v. Manis et al. (W.D. Va., 2023): McMurray appeared among dozens of Wallens Ridge and Red Onion defendants in a large retaliation/harassment action that the court severed into multiple cases under PLRA rules. (PDF)

Read together, these records don’t “prove” what happened in each case — courts did not reach the merits — but they do show a pattern the state benefits from: allegations recur, while technical barriers repeatedly short-circuit public scrutiny.

VADOC secrecy: a culture of abuse under an information monopoly

The McMurray indictment is one thread in a larger pattern: a culture of racist carceral abuse backed by an information monopoly. When the same agency that runs the prisons also controls who sees the records, deaths in custody and brutal assaults disappear into “pending investigations,” withheld files, and vague one-line notifications to families.

People who died in VADOC custody while families were kept in the dark

• Michael Hailey (Red Onion State Prison) — Family members report that they are still waiting on toxicology for his death, even as they hold letters where he documented abuse and unsafe conditions. In the same facility, witnesses also describe an overdose death after staff allegedly failed to make required rounds — underscoring how basic safety checks can become matters of life and death.
• Bobby Nicholson Jr. (Red Onion State Prison) — A long-time jailhouse lawyer and litigant who spent years suing VADOC leadership over abuse and medical neglect before dying in custody. His death raises an obvious question: what happens to people who insist on using the courts to challenge the system that confines them?
• Aubrey McKay (Wallens Ridge State Prison) — Died at Wallens Ridge after a period of heightened repression and staff stabbings. Loved ones and advocates report that his body showed shackling-type injuries and a fractured larynx, raising serious concerns about the force and restraints used on him before his death. For more background and action tools, see: bit.ly/justice-for-aubrey-mckay.
• Christopher Armentrout (Greensville Correctional Center) — A 40-year-old who died unexpectedly in his cell on September 14, 2025. His family was called around 5:30 a.m. and told only that he had been found dead at 4:18 a.m., with no explanation of whether he suffered a medical event, an assault, or something else. When his stepmother filed a FOIA request, VADOC admitted there were 256 pages but chose to withhold all of them, claiming “discretion.” For more, see WRIC’s coverage: “What are you covering up?” – Family searches for answers after loved one dies unexpectedly in Greensville Correctional .
• Michael Dove (Greensville Correctional Center) — A 38-year-old struggling with addiction and mental-health issues who was supposed to be released in 2028. He died at 3:49 a.m. on April 4, 2025, after reporting he had asked for mental-health help and been told he would have to wait until Monday. He never lived to see that Monday. His mother, Rhonda Dove, describes being told after his death that staff could not share information because “he wasn’t in their custody anymore” — a claim for which reporters could find no basis in Virginia law. She also reports that he struggled to obtain his medications, never received his property after transfer, and had recently attempted suicide. See WRIC’s story: “They are still human beings”: Mother says she’s gotten no answers from VADOC since son’s death in Greensville prison .
• Princeo Brooks (Greensville Correctional Center) — Another man who died in VADOC custody, whose loved ones and advocates are still fighting for basic answers about what happened to him and whether abuse, neglect, or retaliation played a role. His case is part of the same landscape of deaths where families are forced to become investigators because the Department controls the records. Reminder coverage: Family learns details of loved one’s murder at Greensville Correctional only after finding article online .

People who are still alive — and still at risk

• Kenneth Evans (#1446064) — A prisoner who has reported on River North fires, TB fraud, and collective punishment. After witnessing a hallway stabbing of a “dog man” officer and the subsequent hallway beating of John Holomon Russell, Evans reports being put in a shock belt, tased until he lost consciousness, transferred to Red Onion, stripped, thrown naked into a filthy intake cell, and held in indefinite segregation with no charge or hearing. He is being held in a prison where the major is the slain officer’s cousin — a glaring conflict of interest. For action tools and oversight contacts focused on Kenneth and the Western Region, see: Retaliation, Secrecy, and Deaths in Custody – Western Region .
• John Holomon Russell — The prisoner Evans identifies as having stabbed a correctional officer in the face in a hallway at River North, then being beaten “to a pulp… stomped… beat the hell out of him” while already down. Prisoners fear he could be “killed and covered up.” His condition, treatment, and access to counsel remain urgent unanswered questions.
• Javon “Baby Jay” Arrington (#1421147) — Reportedly pulled from his cell at Red Onion on December 10, 2025 while the prison was on lockdown, slammed against a wall, stripped, beaten, and sprayed with an orange chemical agent “all over his body,” then left for hours without a shower, naked and cold on so-called “suicide watch” in three-piece restraints. Loved ones and witnesses describe this as chemical torture and sexual humiliation, especially given his long history of filing grievances and federal civil-rights suits about abuse at Red Onion. For a detailed update and campaign tools focused on Javon, see: Protect Javon “Baby Jay” Arrington – Stop Chemical Torture & Sexual Humiliation at Red Onion .

These are not isolated “incidents.” They are pieces of the same closed system that made it possible for an alleged 2022 assault at Wallens Ridge to stay buried until a 2025 indictment: retaliation against witnesses, families kept in the dark, and a bureaucracy that treats evidence and records as its private property.

For a deeper briefing on these Western Region cases and the legal framework they implicate, see UPROAR’s report Locked Cells, Locked Records: Retaliation, Deaths, and Secrecy across VADOC: Download the full report (PDF) , and the campaign toolkit: Retaliation, Secrecy, and Deaths in Custody – Western Region .

FAQ: David McMurray indictment, Wallens Ridge, and 18 U.S.C. § 242

Who is David McMurray in this federal case?

Court filings identify David McMurray as a correctional officer at Wallens Ridge State Prison who was indicted federally in October 2025 in the Western District of Virginia.

What is 18 U.S.C. § 242?

18 U.S.C. § 242 is a federal criminal civil-rights statute used when prosecutors allege a government employee willfully violated someone’s constitutional rights while acting under official authority (“under color of law”).

Where is Wallens Ridge State Prison?

Wallens Ridge State Prison is a Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) facility in the western region of Virginia’s prison system.

Why did the public hear about the case so late?

The filings show the United States moved to seal the indictment and related documents at the outset, and closed institutions routinely delay public visibility through procedure, limited reporting, and restricted access to records.

When is the trial date?

The court continued trial into May 2026 (May 11–13, 2026, per the continuance order referenced above).

Source documents (court records)

Federal criminal case filings

• Federal indictment (Oct. 7, 2025)
• Arrest warrant (Oct. 7, 2025)
• Government motion to seal indictment (Oct. 7, 2025)
• Appearance sheet – Initial appearance & arraignment (Oct. 9, 2025)
• Order setting conditions of release (Oct. 9, 2025)
• Order continuing trial to May 2026 (entered Nov. 10, 2025)

Related civil rights filings naming McMurray

• Moore v. McMurray (W.D. Va., 2021) — procedural dismissal (alleged 2018 hand injury)
• Taylor v. Ravizee et al. (4th Cir., 2023) — procedural dismissal
• Ofori v. Manis et al. (W.D. Va., 2023) — PLRA severance order