http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-riot21oct21235636,1,4620694.story

Shooting Death of Inmate at Issue
Prison officials say use of deadly force by guard was needed to protect another prisoner during a riot, but witnesses raise questions.
By Mark Arax
Times Staff Writer

October 21, 2003

FRESNO — In the days after a guard shot and killed an inmate at Pleasant Valley State Prison last week, corrections staff said a "major riot" involving 300 prisoners had led to the shooting. The use of deadly force, they said, stopped one particularly savage brawl that threatened the life of an inmate.

But prison videotapes and eyewitness accounts detail a far smaller incident involving about 50 inmates in the recreation yard where the deadly shot rang out, according to Fresno County sheriff's investigators. No inmate in the yard carried a weapon or caused serious injury to another inmate, corrections officials now acknowledge.

The inmate whose life was said to have been in danger walked away from the fight with bruises on his face, corrections officials said. Likewise, no guard faced imminent peril.

Two teams of investigators — one from the sheriff's office and one from the state Department of Corrections — are now probing the Oct. 12 incident, only the second fatal shooting at a California prison since deadly force guidelines were tightened in 1999. 

Corrections officials say it is too early to determine whether the shooting was justified. But in past probes, they acknowledge, the absence of weapons and "imminent great bodily harm" have led investigators to rule such shootings unjustified, costing the state millions of dollars in victim settlements.

"Each shooting is fully investigated not just by a corrections team, but by outside law enforcement," said Margot Bach, a state corrections spokeswoman. "There's a lot more work to do before determining whether this shooting is justified or not."

The Fresno County coroner's office said Alejandro Enriquez, a 28-year-old Los Angeles man serving a 15-years-to-life sentence for second-degree murder, was killed by a single gunshot wound to the chest. Prison staff say he was the aggressor in one of several fistfights that erupted in the Facility B yard at the prison in the rural town of Coalinga.

They say Enriquez refused to heed repeated warnings to stop brawling and continued pummeling another inmate even after guards fired five rounds of nonlethal wood blocks.

"It appears that [Enriquez] was the aggressor and was beating a defenseless inmate," said Lt. Paul Sanchez, the prison's spokesman. "One officer fired a warning shot and the second officer fired for effect. I imagine they perceived it to be a life-threatening situation."

But one corrections administrator, who asked not to be named for fear of job retaliation, said the fact that the victim in the fight was not badly injured raises serious questions about the shooting. "Our shooting policy is pretty clear. You don't fire a deadly round to stop a fight unless you're darn sure an inmate is about to be killed." 

The shooting took place near the same dining hall where inmate Octavio Orozco, 23, was shot and killed by a correctional officer in 1998. In the weeks after that shooting, a high-ranking female administrator went public with charges that Orozco's death had resulted from a grave miscalculation by a careless guard. The fight posed no serious harm to inmates or staff, she argued, and could have been stopped any number of ways short of a gunshot. 

Orozco, who was serving a nine-year sentence for drug dealing, was one of 39 inmates to die statewide during the 1990s as a result of California's controversial practice of shooting at prisoners engaged in fistfights and melees. After a yearlong probe by The Times that ended with the state's reversing its stance and declaring many of the shootings unjustified, the policy on using deadly force was changed.

The new policy makes firing live rounds from a Mini 14 semiautomatic rifle a last resort. A shot to kill is warranted only to prevent an inmate from escaping or causing catastrophic injuries to staff or another inmate. 

The Orozco family later filed a wrongful death lawsuit that was settled in February for $600,000. 

The Facility B unit at Pleasant Valley houses about 1,200 inmates — more than double its capacity. To ease overcrowding, some inmates are housed in the gym. During the evening meal on Oct. 12, guards were releasing inmates from one building when a fight broke out between two prisoners from rival Mexican groups.

Officers stopped the fight and placed the two inmates back in their cells, according to an official account. After both inmates assured guards that no bad blood existed between the groups, the releases of prisoners for the evening meal continued. A few minutes later, however, two more inmates from the same groups began fighting in the yard, which is the size of 1 1/2 football fields, according to prison staff. That fight touched off a melee involving 50 other inmates in the same yard.

"All the Southern Hispanics began to run from everywhere to the fight," Sanchez said. "Inmates in the gym and the dining hall could see the yard fight and then they began fighting too. This was a classic example of how a single incident can escalate into a major riot involving 300 inmates."

But Fresno County sheriff's investigators say videotapes and witness accounts portray not one major riot involving 300 inmates, but three separate fights in three distinct parts of Facility B. As about 50 inmates got involved in fighting or threatening to fight in the yard, other disturbances involving 250 inmates broke out in the gym and dining hall, they say.

Guards were able to bring peace to the gym and dining hall by using pepper spray and shouting verbal warnings to "get down." But the fight in the yard persisted until two guards, one standing in a gun post tower and the other in the second-floor control booth, fired two live rounds in the yard.

"The fight in the yard starts out with 30 or 40 inmates and then others run over to join in," said Sgt. Bob Moore, who heads the sheriff's team. 

"There is major pummeling going on by more than one person, and officers form a skirmish line. Because the video pans back and forth, you lose a lot of what's going on.

"At some point, the majority of the yard goes down, but a pocket of inmates are still fighting," Moore continued. "That's when two live rounds are fired, one as a warning and the other striking an inmate in the chest."

Sanchez, the prison spokesman, defended the actions of the two guards who fired the shots. He said they followed the department's policy of escalating force: verbal warnings, pepper spray, firing nonlethal wood block rounds, firing a live warning shot and then finally firing a round "for effect."

"It's a very difficult decision," he said. "You have only a second or two to make it. This one inmate was defenseless. If they don't react and he takes a kick in the head, he can die."

But Bach, the corrections spokeswoman, acknowledged that the only weapons retrieved were found in the dining hall and gym, where no shots were fired. The inmate beaten by Enriquez declined to be sent to an outside hospital and was treated at the prison infirmary for facial bruises and swelling. 

The two guards who fired the live rounds have been placed on leave pending the outcome of the sheriff's investigation. A probe by the corrections Deadly Force Investigative Team is also underway. 

Since the shooting policy was revamped in 1999, only one other inmate has been shot and killed by a corrections officer. In February 2000 at Pelican Bay prison near the California-Oregon border, a riot involving 300 inmates in the exercise yard ended in gunfire.

Nearly 90 weapons were found and dozens of inmates who had fought were sent to the hospital with injuries.

http://fresnobee.com/local/crime/story/7590156p-8498628c.html

Coalinga prison guard kills inmate in riot 
By Donald E. Coleman
The Fresno Bee
Published 10/14/03 09:01:00

A guard shot and killed an inmate Sunday night in a riot involving about 300 prisoners at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga.

While unsure of the cause of the disturbance, a prison spokesman said the prison has 5,000 inmates in a setting designed for 2,500.

"Overcrowding is always a problem," said Lt. Paul Sanchez, a prison spokesman. "We have 250 inmates in a gym. It becomes a dangerous situation. We're at 200% of maximum."

He said the prisoners, some of who are serving life terms, are designated one level below maximum security and should be housed in cells with gun coverage and with a secured perimeter.

The melee started about 6:45 p.m. in a recreation yard after some exchanges between Mexican nationals and other Hispanic inmates, Sanchez said.

The fighting spilled into a dining room and a gymnasium, where some African-American inmates jumped in.

Guards took about 15 or 20 minutes to quell the disturbance, which subsided after shots from at least one guard killed the inmate, whose identity is being withheld pending notification of relatives.

Four inmates were taken to hospitals outside the prison for non-life-threatening injuries, Sanchez said.

He added that no guards were wounded.

Sanchez said at least two corrections officers are on leave pending an investigation by the Fresno County Sheriff's Department. A spokesperson confirmed that the department is investigating.

Inmates will be confined to their cells until prison officials complete their investigation.

"Some areas could be back to normal within a few days, but the 'B' facility could take a week or two," Sanchez said. "This is not your typical street shooting. We have 1,200 guys that could be witnesses, and they all might have different stories."

The fatal shooting was the second by guards since the prison opened in 1994.

In May 1998, Octavio Orozco, 23, of Los Angeles was shot by a guard in a dining hall melee.

In February 2000, the only other officer-involved shooting at a state prison since Orozco left one inmate dead and 32 wounded at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City.

In 1994, the shooting death of Preston Tate at Corcoran State Prison brought national media attention to that institution after reports of more than 40 inmate shootings from 1989 to 1995, seven of them fatal.

In the past decade, at least a dozen Corcoran correction officers were prosecuted in criminal jury trials and found not guilty of prisoner abuse.

Orozco's family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in 1999.

It was settled for $600,000 last February.

The shooting was investigated for possible charges, but the Fresno County District Attorney's Office decided against bringing a criminal complaint against the guards or the inmates.

Sanchez said the Coalinga prison has had several disturbances since Orozco's death, but that the state's deadly force policy has decreased the number of fatalities.

"It makes deadly force the last option," Sanchez said. "This one escalated far beyond what was expected."

Verbal commands, tear gas, wooden batons and pepper spray are all tools guards must use before firing, Sanchez said.

He said inmates in Sunday's disturbance failed to comply with demands to stop the rioting.

Sanchez said authorities will conduct interviews with many of the inmates housed in the section where the fight broke out.

What lies ahead for prison officials is trying to determine the nature and cause of the disturbance, whether there will be retaliation by inmates and how it spilled into other areas.

Witness questioning will involve more than verbal inquiries.

"We'll look for signs of altercations, bumps, bruises and scratches," Sanchez said. "We'll rely heavily on injuries. There are no reasons inmates should be walking around with fresh injuries. Usually, if they're hurt playing basketball or something, they'll report it immediately in case something like this happens."

Because of the holiday, Department of Corrections officials in Sacramento could not be reached.

The reporter can be reached at  [email protected]  or 441-6360.

Inmate found hanging at jail, dies of injuries

     Inland Valley Voice 

By Staff Reports, Inland Valley Voice 

RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- An inmate was found hanging from a metal frame cabinet Friday afternoon at West Valley Detention Center and pronounced dead a short while later. 

The inmate, whose name was being withheld until the family could be notified, was working alone in an area of the jail separated from other inmates, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department reported in a press release. About 12:30 p.m., an employee found the person hanging in a storage room and called for medical aid, but the inmate was dead. 

The inmate had been arrested in connection with narcotics violations and had been in custody since August, the press release stated. 

The sheriff's homicide detail is investigating the matter and an autopsy will be conducted next week to determine the cause of death. 

Inmate Slain In Overcrowded Vacaville Prison 

Charlie Goodyear, 
Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, July 2, 1998 

The slaying of a California Medical Facility inmate just three days after he was housed with another prisoner has raised new concerns about overcrowding at the sprawling Vacaville prison. The death of Jeffrey Ford, 36, followed a week of gang violence at the 3,200-inmate prison and was the first homicide 
there since 1994. 

Ford's body was discovered early Monday morning in the cell he shared with James Diesso, 25. He had been beaten, strangled and cut with a sharp object. The Solano County coroner's office said yesterday that Ford died from strangulation with a narrow object and blunt force trauma. The two men had been moved into the same cell on Friday after they had filled out forms authorizing the double-housing, prison spokeswoman Bea Torres said. 

Ford was serving a six-year prison term for a 1996 petty theft, with previous convictions, in Stanislaus County. Diesso, who has since been moved to the prison's administrative segregation wing, is serving a seven-year term for assault with a deadly weapon in San Bernardino County. ``There had been no 
signs of trouble, and we don't have a motive at this point,'' Torres said. 

Diesso is considered a suspect but has not been charged with the slaying, she said. ``He hasn't given us a statement yet,'' Torres said. Attorneys who represent inmates at the Vacaville prison said that despite the relative infrequency of homicides at the prison, inmates have reported rising tensions. ``The double-celling of course concerns me a great deal,'' said Fairfield attorney Barry Newman. ``I have heard from many inmates who tell me the pressure and tension there is increasing. 

There are more younger inmates who are serving longer sentences and they are without hope. It's quite 
possible we could see more of this in the future.'' On June 23, a melee involving 110 Latino inmates fighting over gang affiliations prompted officials to place the prison on lockdown. Newman represented a mentally ill inmate, Kenneth Arnold, who was placed with another inmate in 1992 against the recommendation of prison officials. Arnold killed the other inmate, telling investigators that he was defending himself against a sexual assault. 

Arnold was ultimately deemed incompetent to stand trial for the killing and has since been placed in a secure mental health facility. ``When they fail to treat the mentally ill, that creates a danger not only to the prison staff but also to other inmates,'' Newman said. Torres said double-celling is necessary because of the state's growing prison population. Prisoners are screened for compatibility by corrections officials, she said. The Solano County district attorney's office is participating in the investigation of Ford's death. But investigators so far have not found any weapon used to kill Ford, Torres said.