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. 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. David Guice, the state's chief deputy secretary for adult correction and juvenile justice, said he does not yet know whether better staffing at Bertie would have made any difference the day that Callahan was killed. I didnt have enough cooperation to connect the dots, she said. Wall and another prison manager walk down the hallway minutes later, then stop outside the office. Hes a manager at Lanesboro Correctional Institution. Inmates catch a mid-morning nap at Lanesboro Correctional Institution, in Polkton. 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 unclear whether better staffing would have saved Callahan's life. From a common area, Cook can see Zelaya-Sorto and Ortiz the prisoners who have just met with Wall. Then he covers his mouth. Others believe that it was somehow connected to his job. A fellow prisoner, Joel Corto Ortiz, pleaded guilty to felony assault with a deadly weapon for stabbing Christopher Cook, another inmate who was seriously injured in the fight. A female officer told Bridges that Wall just called looking for help. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dana Washington, of the U.S. Attorneys Office in Charlotte, is in charge of the prosecution.
NC prison officers sleep on the job, putting lives at risk | Raleigh But after investigating for more than a year, the SBI closed the case. Gregorio Cortez Vazquez, who was accused of stabbing Turner, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Wednesday in Anson County Superior Court and was sentenced to up to 16 years. [5] The prisoners were stripped, locked in their cells and shot. Cook is a leader of the Folk Nation, a rival gang, and he has heard rumors of escalating gang tensions. Brooke, James. But only one shank was recovered. [16] The group is believed to be responsible for the death of Jos Ismael Pedrosa, the director of the prison at the time. / CBS/AP. Later that afternoon, Wall arrived at the Lanesboro parking lot, according to a prison document. [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. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. The prison is named for the nearby community of Lanesboro. This morning, Turner had warned Cook that Latino gang members planned to create trouble between the Bloods and the Folks. She and her colleagues in the Charlotte SBI office were frequently called to investigate crimes there, including officers charged with bringing drugs to inmates. Officers and staff have orchestrated illegal smuggling operations, beaten shackled inmates and engaged in sex with prisoners. Cook suffered lacerations and puncture wounds. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. It was shocking to see the place wasnt being supervised with more of the restrictions that youd expect in a prison, she said. An investigation by The Charlotte Observer found that state prison policies and management failures allow corruption to thrive. McCoy heard the officer curse and saw her struggling with an inmate. Some family members believe that the murder may have been connected to an incident that occurred at a convenience store earlier in the week.
NC prison was understaffed when sergeant was beaten to death The facility houses medium- and close-security inmates. Statewide, about 16 percent of officer positions are vacant. 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. In a court filing, Wall said he never facilitated attacks. He would not discuss the lawsuit or his testimony with an Observer reporter. The current capacity of Lanesboro Correctional Institution is 1,400 adult male inmates. ANSON COUNTY, N.C. One inmate is dead after an incident at Lanesboro Correctional Center in Anson County. The state Department of Public Safety says an inmate at Bertie. The officer said Wall asked her to go into his old office and retrieve a bag of shanks from the ceiling. The state has changed the prisons leadership several times in recent years. A prison with 1,000 inmates should have a total of at least 300 to 350 officers, he said. Daniel Roberts, one of the lawyers, said at a sentencing hearing that the footage suggests prison officials may have sanctioned the attack or looked the other way. He was sentenced to 32 to 48 months. Where, she wondered, were the shanks used to attack Cook and Turner? [21] Bridges and a prison captain searched the ceiling and found videos of prison fights, nine rods, a long metal shank and three bloody shanks.
1 inmate dead after incident at correctional center - WSOC TV Drive down U.S. 74 toward the beach and you may not realize its there. For instance, they noted, he failed to tell prison officers after his attacker assaulted him the first time. The staffing shortages also put officers in danger, Smith said. "We've got to find a way to retain the people who work for us," Guice said. The disclosures raise new questions about the role that corrections officers have played in violence at the high-security prison in Anson County. By Ames Alexander - aalexander@charlotteobserver.com. The vigil and pleas for justice led to several trials for the officers involved in the massacre that same year. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Wesley Turner, a former inmate at Lanesboro Correctional Institution, was stabbed to death in a 2012 prison fight. For months, Bridges tried to make sense of what she saw at the murder scene and on surveillance video. One Polk officer made $29,800 in salary in 2015. Police haven't arrested his shooter and there are big questions about what led up to Thursday. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. 11.291 (IACmHR, Apr. Now two NC men face prison.
Officials: Lanesboro guard smuggled heroin for inmate Roberts and Jeremy Smith, the state-appointed lawyers who represented Vazquez, said they watched prison surveillance video taken on the day Turner was killed and learned the following: Around lunchtime on Sept. 28, 2012, Ortiz and Zelaya-Sorto, along with one or two inmates who were members of a gang called the United Blood Nation, were in an administrative office with Wall and an assistant unit manager. Wall said he put the shanks in the ceiling because he couldnt lock his desk drawer or file cabinet, his dismissal letter states. The other inmate who was injured is being treated for his injuries. The four staff members at the Lanesboro. Forensic tests did not tie any of the shanks in Walls ceiling to the attacks on Turner, according to Bridges, the SBI agent. At the time, she was responding to a fire that had been set inside the. 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.
Leandro Lo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Star, Killed in So Paulo - Sports Hes a rookie at Lanesboro who is new to that job, still learning who to let in and who to keep out. The officer opens the door for an inmate, and the three gang members follow him into a cell block where they dont belong. They visited the office for about 15 minutes. In 2014, we reported that an inmate stabbed a prison administrator as he walked through the prison recreation yard. The police released their dogs in the barber shop, where the wounded prisoners were taken. He said he based his suspicions on information from inmate informants and prison surveillance video.
Inmates sue staff of Lanesboro Correctional - WBTV News NC sergeant killed by inmate worked in understaffed prison | Charlotte Officers often find that they may become targets outside of the work place for incidents that began inside the jails and prisons in which they work. 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.". No prison officials have been criminally charged. "I think if I hadn't gotten over there in time, (Mosley) probably would have cut her throat," McCoy said. Wynn, who is serving a life sentence following a 2008 murder conviction, was permanently disabled after one of the attacks, his lawyers say. The crackdown has reduced assaults, a DPS spokesman said. 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. "It puts officers' lives in danger to be honest. Ortiz is scheduled to get out in 2019. Wall told Bridges that he was asking about rumors of a planned attack on him. "And this time it came up snake eyes," he said. August 2011 - Eighteen inmates assaulted staff members throughout the month. programs we write about. According to Bridges, Wall told authorities he kept the shanks in his office because he was planning to put them in a display that would be used to train other officers. Dustin Bettis, a former inmate who did time in Lanesboro, told the Observer he saw Wall give a pocket knife to one inmate and a cellphone to another. You're tired. 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. They assert that releasing the videos could jeopardize prison security. 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. 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.
Lanesboro Correctional Institution - PrisonPro The gashes in the officer's face and neck required 39 stitches. All charges in the indictment are allegations. The slain officer, Bias Easley, worked at the Lanesboro Correctional Institute, which is located near Wadesboro. They were planning to go to that unit to settle a dispute with Cook, who belonged to a different gang. 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.. The massacre also gained international attention, with The New York Times, publishing one article titled "111 Killed When Police Storm Brazilian Prison During Inmate Riot" the same year as the massacre. "All it would take is for five or ten guys to decide we're going to take over the prison. But Vazquez stabbed and killed Turner using another improvised weapon, a sharpened metal plate. Surveillance video shows two of the attackers meeting with a unit manager shortly before the attack..
The massacre, which left 111 prisoners dead, is considered by many people to be a major human rights violation. Roberts said that if prison is supposed to be a place where inmates learn to live law-abiding lives, Lanesboro appears to be falling short. Soon, the three convicted inmates all reported gang members were waiting at the door that would allow them into E pod, an adjacent unit. One inmate dead, another injured in prison incident, Medical Marijuana bill passes NC Senate; some cannabis supporters against bill, 8-year-old helps raise money for favorite Waffle House worker in need of car, PLAN AHEAD: Latest Weather Forecast Video. [8], In April 2013, 23 policemen involved in the massacre were sentenced to 156 years in prison each for the killing of 13 inmates. 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. On the video, Cook, 41, is the tall inmate gesturing to other prisoners. September 29, 2016 / 6:08 PM Officers found Dwyer dead at 10:15. A typical day working at Lanesboro Correctional Institute was a stressful and dangerous job. Attorneys for the state quizzed Wynn why he didnt take steps that might have allowed him to avoid the attack. According to Acree, the prison is temporarily locked down while an investigation begins. I characterize the lack of supervision there as, quite frankly, shocking, Roberts said. When Callahan was attacked, two other officers were nearby, according to Anthony Jernigan, who heads the State Bureau of Investigation office that covers northeastern North Carolina. State figures show that in April, when Callahan died, roughly one of every five correctional officer positions at the eastern North Carolina prison was vacant. 111 Killed When Police Storm Brazilian Prison During Inmate Riot. The New York Times. The fatal fight broke out roughly five minutes after the inmates left the office. Turner walks over to Cook and they stand shoulder to shoulder, braced for an attack. About 60 inmates were also near Callahan when she was attacked on April 26, Jernigan said. The winner, from Charlotte, took her prize as a $600,000 lump sum, officials said. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.
September 2016 - Inmates stabbed a sergeant and a lieutenant at the prison, and hit two other officers with a broom handle.
Carandiru massacre - Wikipedia [8] In 2013, hundreds of people attended a multi-faith vigil in So Paulo in memoriam of those killed in the massacre. Cook is unarmed. 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. Lanesboro Correctional Institution houses about 1,800 inmates in close, medium and minimum custody. Officials say the men used a homemade shank as a weapon. [9] In such situations inmates will sometimes send associates to threaten the officers, or even assault them. But, Cook said, Turner usually kept to himself. Other prison staff members showed him where it was, he said. 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.
Correctional officer, father of 2 killed in shooting - WSOC TV A federal lawsuit, filed last month by five former Lanesboro inmates, alleges that corrections officers helped gang members wage attacks against other inmates. - A federal grand jury sitting in Charlotte has indicted Erice Lemond Blyther, 46, of Hoffman, N.C., for smuggling a controlled substance at Lanesboro Correctional Institution while employed as a correctional officer. Ortiz was sentenced to 37 to 57 months. In a cell block inside one of the states most dangerous prisons, an inmate stabs a rival gang member over and over, 13 times. 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. Food Service Officer (Former Employee) - Wadesboro, NC - August 31, 2019. 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. Combined, theyve been cited for dozens of offenses while in prison, including weapon possession, fighting and assault.
NC prison officials asked for inmates' silence after Lanesboro killing But Jeffery Wall the unit manager who made the gesture has been accused in federal lawsuits of facilitating two other gang attacks the same year. Ronald Covington, a former captain at Lanesboro, testified that Wall appeared to be close to a gang-affiliated inmate.
Contact SAP - Penitentiary Administration of So - corrections.direct He also said he had not kept a gun in plain view inside his car, contrary to what a corrections officer had reported. Bertie isn't the only state prison with staffing problems. Inmate Donny Mosley, who is serving time for second-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon, had slashed her face and neck with a razor-like weapon. Moments earlier, the video shows former prison sergeant Jonathan Peguese making the identical gesture toward the office where one of the other suspects was held, the lawyers said. One prisoner alleges that Wall ran a violent, contraband-driven fiefdom.. [5] No policemen were injured. The N.C. Department of Public Safety has declined the Observers requests for copies of the video, citing ongoing investigative reviews.. Officers skipped their required rounds at the prison the night Quick died, records show. Bridges said she hasnt watched all of the DVDs found in Walls ceiling, but has turned them over to the FBI. In 2012, an inmate filed a federal lawsuit alleging that Lanesboro corrections officers cracked his skull with a baton and then destroyed a surveillance video that showed the assault. 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. Meggan Callahan was killed by an inmate at Bertie Correctional Institution Wednesday evening. ) or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. Prison officials considered that a clear threat to staff. He had 43. All three belonged to gangs. But, with the help of a source, the Observer obtained a prison surveillance video from the 2012 attack that killed inmate Wesley Turner, providing a rare glimpse into a prison murder.
Murder investigation exposes more problems at Lanesboro prison Zelaya-Sorto and Ortiz pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon. One of those officers fell and hurt her knee when she went to Callahan's defense, Jernigan said. An official website of the United States government.
That works out to about one officer for every 29 inmates. Both inmates are members of MS-13, a powerful Latino gang. Ten months later, significant amounts of contraband including video recordings and three bloody shanks were found in the ceiling above Walls office, according to his dismissal letter.