Cause of first NYC jail death in 2025 revealed as drug overdose
Ramel Powell, 38, died Feb. 19 at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center of 'acute MDMB-4en-PINACA intoxication,' the city's Medical Examiner office reported Tuesday, using the technical language for synthetic weed. The office classified his death as accidental.
Powell's was the first of six in-custody deaths so far in 2025 either in a jail, a court holding pen or a hospital unit after the person fell into medical distress in the jails.
'The Department of Investigation has issued multiple reports outlining what our members know — the primary source of drugs on Rikers is not mail or visitors, but the one source DOC refuses to address — their own staff,' said Sarita Daftary, co-director of the Freedom Agenda, an advocacy group.
The ME's office also disclosed that Soso Ramashvili, 32, who died March 21 in Kings County Criminal Court, suffered a severe inflammation in the abdomen from a perforated ulcer — officially, 'acute peritonitis due to perforated duodenal ulcer due to peptic ulcer disease.'
Ramashvili had been arrested on a shoplifting charge. He was also accused of possession of a small amount of cocaine. He was held for three days prior to arraignment, apparently shuttling between police facilities and the hospital. Advocates called for an investigation back in March.
'Soso Ramashvili was detained and processed on a charge that should have resulted in an appearance ticket. Instead, he was effectively condemned to a death sentence — repeatedly denied the medical care he urgently needed,' said Meghna Philip, director of the Special Litigation Unit in the criminal defense practice at the Legal Aid Society.
'The NYPD clearly violated the law by processing and holding him in custody far beyond what was legally permitted. The callous disregard law enforcement continues to show for the lives and rights of New Yorkers is deeply disturbing.'
The NYPD did not immediately reply to a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.
Powell was arrested for a May 8, 2023 slashing on the Lower East Side and sent to Rikers that July. After his death, The News reported a reason for his extended detention was that he had changed lawyers four times.
He has also spent time in an upstate psychiatric facility after a judge ruled he was not mentally fit to stand trial.
The Correction Department declined to comment on Powell's cause of death, citing an ongoing investigation. But the agency has recently renewed a push to tighten security around mail citing a smuggling tactic where pages of letters or books are soaked with narcotics.
In 2023, a previous effort which would have led to the electronic scanning of all detainee mail was blocked by the Board of Correction, when a majority of members declined to put the measure up for a vote.
The new proposal would allow the Correction Department to open and search non-legal mail outside of the view of detainees.
Latima Johnson, a DOC spokeswoman, said the agency is continuing to urge the Board of Correction for approval of the new mail measure.
'Synthetic narcotics present a challenge to correctional institutions across the country,' she said. 'These substances do not have stable chemical compositions nor any scent so K9 [drug sniffing dogs] cannot detect them. These substances are also extremely dangerous to the people who live and work in our jails.'
The causes of death in the other four cases remain pending. Those include Terence Moore, who suffered a fatal seizure Feb. 24 in Manhattan Criminal Court, Sonia Reyes, who died March 20 at the West Facility on Rikers Island, and Ibrahim Diallo who died March 26 at Manhattan Criminal Court.
The ME's office also has yet to issue a cause of death in the case of Ariel Quidone, 20, who died March 15 at Elmhurst Hospital after just eight days in jail on Rikers, where he fell into medical distress. His family has said he suffered a burst appendix and has alleged it was not properly treated.
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