lanesboro correctional officer killed

Corrections officers flocked to the scene after the stabbings, but only one shank was recovered. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. [6], By the end of the day, 111 prisoners were dead; and 37 more were injured. A video taken inside Lanesboro Correctional Institution shows prison officials gesturing to suspects in an inmate's 2012 murder to keep their mouths shut after the killing, lawyers who. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Some correctional officers have more than doubled their income by working overtime. Soon afterward, a corrections officer allowed the inmates into the pod where the murder took place. Why would you keep them there, with the risk of them getting into the hands of an inmate? she asked. Lock But, Cook said, Turner usually kept to himself. His name has not been released. One of Brazil's most notorious gangs, the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), is said to have formed in 1993 as a response to the event. Polkton is 45 miles southeast of Charlotte. But minutes later, they are walking through a prison hallway with weapons, headed for a fight. He got the nickname Ghost Face as the only white kid hanging out in a Durham housing project. "When you don't have adequate staff to manage the inmates, and there's an incident, unfortunately people can get hurt and sometimes people even die," Webster said. He would not discuss the lawsuit or his testimony with an Observer reporter. A lock ( The three continue to cause trouble: Since Turners death, theyve been written up for about 50 infractions, including weapon possession, setting fires and assaulting staff. [5] No policemen were injured. Then Wall said, They have nothing to worry about because if I wanted to get anyone, I could get them touched from the outside, the letter states. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. He said three inmates believed to be involved in the assault have been identified and are being questioned. He reportedly belonged to Cooks gang and planned to go to his defense. Ortiz and Vazquez didnt respond to the Observers requests for information about the case. At least eight Lanesboro officers were caught bringing in drugs, cellphones and tobacco from early 2013 to early 2017, according to law enforcement records. Angela Smith, who worked as an officer at Tabor Correctional Institution from 2010 to 2014, said she was often asked to work overtime because the prison was so understaffed. Correctional officers were also prohibited from accepting gifts from inmates, performing favors for inmates, or providing inmates with narcotic drugs or any other item forbidden by LCI rules. In a recorded phone conversation, Hunt told a friend she knew a bunch of corrupt officers, according to an FBI affidavit. Turner walks over to Cook and they stand shoulder to shoulder, braced for an attack. Inmates within the LCI were prohibited from possessing controlled substances and are permitted to use controlled substances only when prescribed by a medical professional and under the direct supervision of LCI staff. The North Carolina Department of Public Safety says a lieutenant and a sergeant were stabbed by inmates at Lanesboro Correctional Institution in Polkton around 2 p.m. Thursday. At Bertie, Callahan was responding to a fire set inside a trash can on the evening of April 26 when an inmate beat her to death with the fire extinguisher she'd brought to douse the flames, state officials say. That was one of three times inmates attacked Mitchell. Charlotte, NC 28202, Charlotte: (704) 344-6222 Bridges said she reviewed hours of surveillance video and saw that inmates frequently visited the office of an assistant prison manager a practice that she believed posed a danger to officers. He stretches his arms high. [18] Turner, according to the NCDPS, was serving time in the prison for the chargesof second degree murder, conspiracy murder first degree, and an attempted prison escape. In 2014, a Lanesboro officer was paid $29,800 but made another $35,600 in overtime. According to charges contained in the federal indictment, Blyther worked as a correctional officer at the Lanesboro Correctional Institution (LCI), since renamed Anson Correctional Institution, a state prison located in Polkton, North Carolina. But if another staff member had been standing beside the officer that morning, "there's a possibility (Mosley) would have kept walking," McCoy said. Dawe, whose group shares research to help correctional officers, said that prison leaders who operate without sufficient staff "roll the dice with people's lives.". The slain officer, Bias Easley, worked at the Lanesboro Correctional Institute, which is located near Wadesboro. Vazquez, 32, had already been serving an eight- to 10-year sentence for second-degree murder. Now two NC men face prison. Some family members believe that the murder may have been . Located in Polkton, about 45 miles east of Charlotte, Lanesboro has repeatedly drawn scrutiny after violence, contraband smuggling and allegations of improper conduct by corrections officers. Inmates at this prison are kept under close watch and have committed very serious crimes. The facility houses medium- and close-security inmates. Lanesboro Correctional Institution houses about 1,800 inmates in close, medium and minimum custody. From a common area, Cook can see Zelaya-Sorto and Ortiz the prisoners who have just met with Wall. Then shelter shared desperate plea, What to Watch Friday: Dateline and 20/20 update Murdaugh murder trial coverage, Mail carrier cant believe his eyes after seeing NC lottery win. "It's so dangerous," Gravitte said. In his testimony Tuesday, Wall said he had at one time kept the shanks in a safe in Parsons office but later moved them to his own office. How serious Parsons was about keeping contraband out of the prison remains unclear. Its time, Cook wrote, to expose why Turner died. The Carandiru massacre (Portuguese: Massacre do Carandiru, Portuguese: [msaki du kdiu]) occurred on Friday, 2 October 1992, in Carandiru Penitentiary in So Paulo, Brazil, when military police stormed the penitentiary following a prison riot.The massacre, which left 111 prisoners dead, is considered by many people to be a major human rights violation. They entered their dogs in fights and watched them die. The incident was reported around 1:30 p.m. at the Lanesboro Correctional Institution in Polkton. The dismissal letter, signed by Lanesboros acting administrator at the time, called Walls statement a clear threat of injury or harm to staff.. Officials say the men used a homemade shank as a weapon. Starting in November 2013, more than 800 inmates at the prison were put on lockdown for several months after an attack injured a corrections officer. SBI officials say theres no proof that happened in the Turner case. No, I dont think he would have.. The Associated Press contributed to this report. In court documents, Parsons has denied that. Wynn alleges that Parsons was willfully and deliberately indifferent to his safety, in violation of his Constitutional right to protection from cruel and unusual punishment. He also said he had not kept a gun in plain view inside his car, contrary to what a corrections officer had reported. Turner, 35, a convicted murderer nicknamed Thug Life, has served most of his 21-year prison sentence. At Polk Correctional Institution, north of Durham, two or three officers are routinely put in charge of monitoring more than 200 inmates in the chow hall, said Sierra Gravitte, an officer who this month resigned from the prison after four years on the job. To cope with the shortages, many prisons have also paid hundreds of thousands each year for overtime. ANSON COUNTY, NC (WBTV) - One inmate is dead andanother injured after an incident at a state prison in Anson County. Why would someone working in a prison give someone who is suspected of being involved in a murder a be quiet sign? Roberts said in an interview with the Observer. Reporters interviewed Cook in March, two days after he was released from prison. Prosecutors later dismissed the charge because of problems with the credibility of witnesses. Relatives of those killed and human rights activists have both demanded and appealed for justice. Angela Smith, who worked as. Prison officials considered that a clear threat to staff. The five men say they filed the lawsuit because of their time at Lanesboro Correctional Institution. Forensic tests did not tie any of the shanks in Walls ceiling to the attacks on Turner, according to Bridges, the SBI agent. Here are his plans. He stares into the office for a few moments before walking away. Investigators and lawyers believe a prison manager knew the attack was coming. Contact an Observer reporter: Ames Alexander | 704-358-5060 | aalexander@charlotteobserver.com, Gavin Off | 704-358-6038 | goff@charlotteobserver.com. A veteran SC attorney weighs in, Alex Murdaugh murder trial jury begins deliberations same day 1 juror is removed. Officers found Dwyer dead at 10:15. I believe its not a coincidence that they are in that office within minutes of carrying out that hit, Bridges told an Observer reporter. Other inmates had told investigators that Hodges was supplying contraband to an inmate gang member who she later admitted was her boyfriend, court records show. Theyre within feet of an officer who controls the locked door to the block. The military was given full command of the prison when arriving about 2:30 P.M..[4] Though the director wanted to negotiate with the prisoners by a megaphone, he was held back by his staff since the police almost crushed him. About 60 inmates were also near Callahan when she was attacked on April 26, Jernigan said. Asheville:(828) 271-4661. But Daniel Roberts, one of the attorneys, told a judge at a court hearing that the videos and other evidence suggest prison officials either sanctioned the attack or looked the other way. An investigation by The Charlotte Observer found that state prison policies and management failures allow corruption to thrive. Searches found numerous cellphones, improvised weapons and marijuana. If (prison officials) cant answer that question, why cant they?. Three correctional officers were assaulted late last week at the same state prison where an officer was killed two years ago. On the morning of Sept. 28, 2012, the day that Turner was stabbed to death, there were rumors of potential violence. [3] Around 2:15 P.M., the prison director, Dr Jos Ismael Pedrosa, informed the local military police Polcia Militar do Estado de So Paulo about the uprising. Many listings are from partners who compensate us, which may influence which Wall told Bridges that he was asking about rumors of a planned attack on him. Lanesboro Correctional Institution is a 1,000 cell, high security prison facility located adjacent to Brown Creek Correctional Institution and Anson Correctional Center in Polkton, NC. [16] The group is believed to be responsible for the death of Jos Ismael Pedrosa, the director of the prison at the time. in Criminal Justice - Corrections, and M.S. The vigil and pleas for justice led to several trials for the officers involved in the massacre that same year. Vazquez repeatedly stabs Turner with a shank. Its also unclear where Zelays-Sorto and Ortiz go immediately after the meeting breaks up. This story was originally published December 4, 2014, 6:58 PM. The control booth officer sees the fight, picks up a radio and makes a call. Wall, now 45, wouldnt talk to the Observer. Another officer suffered serious cuts to his face last month after he was assaulted by an inmate with a bladed weapon. April 2009 - Inmate Prentiss Quick complained of chest pains and requested medical help, but no one at the prison got him to a nurse or a doctor, a correctional officer and an inmate said. Have a question about Government Services? December 2010 - Thirteen inmates assaulted staff members in various attacks, state records show. Inmate Craig Wissink, who has been serving a life sentence for murder since 2004, has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with Callahan's death. October 04, 1992. Willis, G. D. (2002). Another was criminally charged with bringing heroin to a prisoner. The state says the prison was on lockdown while they investigated the incident. He was scheduled to stay in jail until 2017. Since the beginning of 2016, more than 30 stabbings occurred. The inmate was identified as 35-year-old Wesley Turner in a news release from N.C . [12] Guimares, who was also a member of the So Paulo state legislature, was assassinated in September 2006. Follow Press TV on Telegram: http://t.me . ANSONCOUNTY, N.C. -- A N.C. inmate has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that corrections officers at an Anson County prison cracked his skull with a baton . And with Wall's signal after the fact, telling (Vazquez) essentially to be quiet, I don't know what other inference you can draw from it.. Our theory is that, at best, the corrections officers knew (the attack) was going to happen and did nothing to stop it, Smith said. Prison surveillance video doesnt capture that meeting, so its unclear what they discussed. Correctional officers face significant dangers in their careers both inside and outside of prisons to which they are assigned. For almost two years, an Observer reporter exchanged letters with inmate Christopher Cook, who described what led to the attack that killed Turner. He had 43. Bridges said that, in her opinion, Walls meeting with the Latino gang members was connected in some way with the subsequent fight. Staff researcher Maria David and editor Rogelio Aranda contributed. Once in a lifetime, After years of negotiations, GOP leaders reach a breakthrough on Medicaid expansion, Alex Murdaughs attorneys say theyll appeal double-murder conviction, 16-year-old Raleigh teen charged with murder in Robeson County killing, The evidence was clear: Murdaugh juror reveals quick deliberation in SC murder trial, Day 29: Murdaugh sentenced to life, attorneys say theyll appeal to US Supreme Court if needed, What were the deciding factors in the Murdaugh guilty verdict? The weapons were found nearly a year and a half after the deadly fight, and forensic tests did not tie any of them to the attacks on Turner and Cook. He died helping me, Cook wrote in a letter to the Observer. In an email to the Observer, state prison leaders said they have no evidence to support that conversations and gestures with inmates seen in the surveillance video are anything other than normal discussions with the inmate population.. [19] In August 2013, another 25 policemen involved in the massacre were sentenced to 624 years each for the deaths of 52 inmates. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. Wall turns and looks directly into the room where Vazquez waits. Official websites use .gov Main Office: A video taken inside Lanesboro Correctional Institution shows prison officials gesturing to suspects in an inmates 2012 murder to keep their mouths shut after the killing, lawyers who represented one of the suspects said. Two other inmates involved in the gang-related fight that day Julio Alberto Zelaya-Sorto and Joel Corto Ortiz also pleaded guilty to felonies and had up to four and five years, respectively, added to their prison sentences. According to the indictment, between August and September 2018, while employed at LCI as a correctional officer, Blyther accepted a bribe to smuggle a controlled substance into the LCI on behalf of an inmate housed at the facility. The state has recently made offers to about 400 officer candidates, so the vacancy rate will likely drop, Guice said. Acree said thetwo correctional officersassaulted with a broom handlewere treated by prison medical staff. Officers sprint in behind Wall, cornering the three attackers. But SBI agent Audria Bridges, who led the investigation, said she was troubled to learn that inmates at the prison roamed freely in areas they should not have been in.. He said he based his suspicions on information from inmate informants and prison surveillance video. In October, the prisons top administrator, David Mitchell, was injured after he was stabbed in the neck by an inmate wielding a plastic shank. They visited the office for about 15 minutes. Bridges, 46, a North Carolina State graduate and former Concord police officer, was familiar with Lanesboro. State prison officials refused to say how many staff were on duty the day Callahan died. The officer said Wall asked her to go into his old office and retrieve a bag of shanks from the ceiling. They refuse. Some of the DVDs showed fights between inmates, Bridges said. The three wait outside Cooks cell block for more than a minute. The FBI investigated the case. It is a close custody facility, which is the equivalent of maximum security. Many of those videos were labeled with the words use of force a term that describes the force used by law enforcement officers to control unruly people. The crackdown has reduced assaults, a DPS spokesman said. He acknowledged that he had heard complaints about Wall from officers at the prison, but they had no concrete evidence.. Updated: 4:34 PM EST November 9, 2012. But it was sometimes hard for prison officers to find those shanks, Parsons said. The officer noticed a gun in Walls vehicle, the letter states. 13, 2000)", "The stories and horrors in Brazil's penal system", "Outrage: 24 Years Later, Carandiru Prison Massacre of 111 is Called Self Defense", "Police officers get 156 years for 1992 Brazilian prison massacre", "Carandiru Massacre's Defining Moment for Brazil - Fair Observer", "Brazil's prison massacres are a frightening window into gang warfare", "Brazil police jailed for prison 'massacre', "Brazil police sentenced over Carandiru jail massacre", "Brazil Carandiru jail massacre police guilty", "15 police guilty in Brazil prison killings", "UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS, Office of the High Commissioner South America", "16 Brazil declares trial on Carandiru massacre null in shocking blow for justice", "Appeal begins in Brazil against acquittal of 74 police", "Opinion | Brazil's Deadly Prison System", "Sepultura's 'Chaos A.D.' Is the Anti-Colonial Rallying Cry that Thrash has Always Needed", Federal Correctional Institution, Talladega riot, Arizona State Prison Complex Lewis riot, United States Penitentiary, Florence riot, Agricultural Penitentiary of Monte Cristo riot, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carandiru_massacre&oldid=1140965457, People shot dead by law enforcement officers in Brazil, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles containing Portuguese-language text, Articles needing additional references from September 2018, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, The massacre is the subject of the song "Manifest" on the, This page was last edited on 22 February 2023, at 17:49. January 2013 - A former Lanesboro correctional officer began sending letters to state officials, describing several incidents in which some prison officials appeared to collude with gang members. Phillip Boney, a former Lanesboro officer, told the Observer that right after the fight, he saw Wall put a shank inside an unlocked wooden podium near the cell block. This story was originally published December 13, 2014, 4:41 PM. They were planning to go to that unit to settle a dispute with Cook, who belonged to a different gang. To investigators and the killers lawyers, his meaning seemed clear: Keep your mouth shut. POLKTON, N.C. -- Authorities in North Carolina say two supervisors were stabbed and two correctional officers were assaulted with a broom handle in an attack at a state prison. "It's not safe," McCoy said. Soon, the three convicted inmates all reported gang members were waiting at the door that would allow them into E pod, an adjacent unit. [9] (Parsons) told me I couldnt say anything about another sergeant bringing in marijuana, Wilburn testified. Wall, who joined the prison system in 1995, was fired in August 2013 for willful violation of written rules and creating conditions that increased the chance of death or serious bodily injury, his dismissal letter states. Roberts, one of Vazquezs attorneys, said he was surprised to see how freely inmates at Lanesboro were allowed to roam the prison. Testimony from former unit manager Jeffery Wall came during the second day of a civil trial examining whether Walls supervisor, the top official at Lanesboro Correctional Institution, ignored serious problems and allowed Wall to maintain a violent, contraband-driven fiefdom.. Where, she wondered, were the shanks used to attack Cook and Turner? "They might have had enough officers to subdue that inmate before he got that fire extinguisher from the sergeant," said Robert Webster, a former captain at two North Carolina maximum-security prisons. We had about 7 officers overseeing about 30 inmates in a kitchen to make sure they followed the recipes.prepared and use the right utensils to serve the food. In February, the FBI charged former Lanesboro officer Evangeline Hunt with smuggling in drugs and other contraband for inmates. He was sentenced to 32 to 48 months. The CO was reportedly stabbed and suffered heavy bleeding after responding to an inmate fight. Jurors deliberated for about half an hour before convicting Mikel. There are no national standards for minimum staffing at prisons, experts say. Prison leaders plan to examine many factors, including staffing patterns, Guice said. This morning, Turner had warned Cook that Latino gang members planned to create trouble between the Bloods and the Folks. Then they returned to D pod, the unit where they lived. ", NC prison was understaffed when Sgt. State corrections officials identified the inmate killed as Wesley Eugene Turner, 35, who had been in prison since 1996 for multiple offenses, including second-degree murder. Wynn alleges that another inmate stabbed him in the chest with a weapon resembling a filet knife, then threw a chair at him. They assert that releasing the videos could jeopardize prison security. Officers said excessive overtime work can leave them burned out and exhausted. Bridges and a prison captain searched the ceiling and found videos of prison fights, nine rods, a long metal shank and three bloody shanks. Lanesboro Correctional Institution Lanesboro Correctional Institution is located in Polkton North Carolina. In January, police and prosecutors teamed up with the prisons new administrator, John Herring, to begin criminally charging inmates caught with weapons. Wynn, who is serving a life sentence following a 2008 murder conviction, was permanently disabled after one of the attacks, his lawyers say. Shortly after 3 p.m., almost three hours after the attack, correctional officers lead Vazquez into a nurses office. At other prisons of comparable size, officers told the Observer, it's common for about 50 or 60 officers to work the day shift. The two inmates meet in the office with Wall, other administrators and members of the United Blood Nation gang, off and on, for 17 minutes. Another prison manager in that cramped office at the time told investigators that she was not paying attention as Wall spoke to the gang members, Bridges said. It was shocking to see the place wasnt being supervised with more of the restrictions that youd expect in a prison, she said. Reach reporter Imari Scarbrough at 704-994-5471 and follow her on Twitter @ImariScarbrough. Lanesboro Correctional Institution is a state men's prison in Polkton, North Carolina, first opened in January, 2004 and operated by the North Carolina Department of Public Safety Adult Corrections.As one of the state's four largest prisons, the official capacity is 1,800 prisoners. Tony Underwood, who headed the Charlotte areas SBI office at the time, said hes still troubled by what investigators learned about Walls relationship with inmates. The winner, from Charlotte, took her prize as a $600,000 lump sum, officials said. By Ames Alexander - aalexander@charlotteobserver.com. He joined the Folk Nation at age 16, was convicted of damaging property soon afterward, and later committed armed robbery, kidnapping and more than a dozen other crimes. One inmate warned Lanesboro prison officials that Latino gang members were armed with homemade knives and planning an attack. The settlement was reached after the trio and two other state prisoners, Orlando Harshaw and Stacey Wynn, sued Lanesboro Correctional Institution Superintendent Lawrence Parsons and other prison officials for allowing and facilitating attacks by gang members in a part of the prison run by Unit Supervisor Jeffrey E. Wall. It did not appear to be a normal prison relationship that a correctional officer should have with inmates, Underwood said. The facility was a detention center, not a penitentiary, meaning that the inmates had not yet been tried or convicted. She earned an extra $36,500 in overtime that year, records show. Authorities say prison Sgt. Soon afterward, the suspects were escorted into offices where they received medical treatment. Others believe that it was somehow connected to his job. The murder, which occurred on Thursday June 5 in the hours before Easley and his father planned to watch the first game of the NBA finals together, left his family devastated. Ortiz, the inmate charged in that stabbing, said his weapon was a plastic toilet bowl cleaner with a sharpened end. Lanesboro has a standard operating capacity of 864 close-custody male inmates, with 128 segregation cells and 8 health care beds. Prison leaders say they have begun assigning new officers "career readiness coaches," who provide pointers on dealing with inmates, keeping themselves safe and attaining career goals. Attorneys for the state quizzed Wynn why he didnt take steps that might have allowed him to avoid the attack. A former high-ranking administrator accused of fostering violence at one of North Carolinas most dangerous prisons acknowledged in federal court Tuesday that he kept homemade weapons such as shanks hidden in the ceiling of his prison office. Blyther was arrested by the FBI on Tuesday, October 29, 2019, and had his initial appearance this morning before U.S. Magistrate Judge David S. Cayer. Attorneys for Vazquez said their client never told them what led to the fight. That works out to about one officer for every 29 inmates. And we don't have enough staff to fight back.". Prison leaders say that when staff vacancies at a prison rise, they make adjustments, such as moving prisoners, reducing inmate programs and sending fewer staff members to special training. A prison with 1,000 inmates should have a total of at least 300 to 350 officers, he said. The Anson County Sheriff's Office says one inmate is dead and another was stabbed. The four staff members at the Lanesboro. Contact SAP - Penitentiary Administration of So Paulo (Secretaria da Administrao Penitenciria), Brazil, Corrections in So Paulo, So Paulo Brazil. [14] Just out of view, in the lower right-hand corner of the video, a second fight erupts. The shank didnt belong there. Murder probe exposes more problems at Lanesboro prison, Former SC governor, Trump ally Nikki Haley coming to Myrtle Beach as she runs for president, Fort Mill just named its top teachers and staff members for 2023. [25] Since the massacre, Brazil's federal government has passed new legislation to reform the prison system, all of which has yet to be enforced.[26]. She and her colleagues in the Charlotte SBI office were frequently called to investigate crimes there, including officers charged with bringing drugs to inmates. One prisoner alleges that Wall ran a violent, contraband-driven fiefdom.. An investigation by The Charlotte Observer last year found that state prison policies and management failures allow corruption and violence to thrive. Surveillance video from that day offers a look behind the prisons walls: Inmates mill about in a hallway, some high-fiving, others hugging or bumping fists, as if they are high-school students changing classes. Soon afterward, he contacted a Lanesboro employee, asking her to retrieve the contraband from the ceiling of his old office, his dismissal letter states.