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Was convicted killer and drug dealer Jessie Con-Ui “an otherwise quiet and respectful inmate” prior to the 2013 slaying of corrections officer Eric Williams of Nanticoke at the Canaan Federal Correction Complex?
Did alleged widespread abuse by staff at the prison near Waymart play a role prior to Williams’ brutal stabbing death, of which Con-Ui stands accused?
Attorneys for Con-Ui raised those possibilities in federal court documents filed Tuesday, in which they say government officials have not yet turned over staff misconduct records from Canaan, which they argue are needed to prepare Con-Ui’s defense.
The attorneys’ filing also included a confidential report, prepared by a defense investigator, containing allegations of staff misconduct made by more than 40 inmates, who say they observed or suffered physical, verbal and emotional abuse at Canaan.
Con-Ui, who faces the death penalty, stands accused of killing Williams, 34, in a premeditated Feb. 25, 2013 attack. According to the indictment, Con-Ui stabbed Williams with a sharpened weapon and struck him repeatedly.
Tuesday’s filing was submitted by defense attorneys Mark Fleming of San Diego, California, James Swetz of Stroudsburg and David Ruhnke of Montclair, New Jersey.
Federal prosecutors had not filed a response to the defense as of Wednesday evening.
Efforts to reach a U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP) spokesperson for comment on allegations of staff misconduct were not immediately successful on Wednesday.
Records battle
Defense lawyers wrote that the government has argued against the release of staff misconduct records, calling the request “overbroad, irrelevant and immaterial,” adding that the government suggested the release of those records will not likely lead to information that would significantly aid Con-Ui’s case.
Con-Ui’s lawyers counter that their client “must be allowed to investigate the incidents of staff misconduct at USP Caanan to determine whether the prevalence of misconduct fomented an environment in which an otherwise quiet and respectful inmate might lose control and lash out violently against a guard.”
The defense says statements from other Canaan inmates “provide disturbingly similar accounts of widespread staff misconduct and mistreatment of inmates,” who describe “how the conditions created by the staff at USP Canaan led to high levels of stress, fear and tension in C-Unit at the time of Officer Williams’ death.”
They further suggest that such records could assist the court “in determining whether the information may lead to evidence that, in a penalty phase, might cause a juror to consider imposing a sentence less than death.”
According to an FBI report filed in the case, Con-Ui said “I am sick of all your people’s disrespect,” as he was taken from his cell, where he barricaded himself following the attack.
One of the lieutenants, according to a prisoner identified only as Inmate 34 in the defense investigator’s report, arrived at the scene of Williams’ killing and yelled, “I’m going to kill the mother [expletive] when I find out who did this.”
Con-Ui has since been transferred to the U.S. Penitentiary in Florence, Colorado, according to the Bureau of Prisons website.
Defense attorneys also took aim at statements made by prosecutors during a March 5 conference call, in which they say the government replied that having to produce five years’ worth of staff misconduct records would create undue burden for the Bureau of Prisons.
The lawyers argue that the government has been ordered to disclose similar materials in other cases and complied.
Other documents
Tuesday’s filing also outlines the status of other requests made by the defense. Among them:
• Also unresolved, the defense says, is its request for any reports or notes generated by the BOP regarding Williams’ killing.
“The government insists that no after-action inquiry was conducted by the BOP after Officer Williams was killed,” the defense says, but notes that “this would be a departure from the normal protocol following the death of a correctional officer at the hands of an inmate.”
“Minutes from a March 19, 2013 meeting with the warden of USP Canaan strongly suggest that there was an investigation,” the defense argues, and “that the investigation resulted in over one hundred recommendations for changes at the prison.”
As evidence, of this, the lawyers add, the minutes confirm that “changes are taking place because of what was submitted.”
• The defense says the government has refused to disclose a complete copy of post-orders for C-Unit.
“The defense must examine the complete post-orders to determine when Officer Williams last reported to the Control Center and whether the Control Center followed the correct procedures,” the lawyers wrote.
• The government has not yet disclosed the C-Unit lieutenant logbook for six months following Williams’ death, the defense says.
• The defense also wants the government to confirm whether any attempt was made to videotape a meeting between Con-Ui and chaplain Ngozi Osuji at USP Allenwood within days of the incident.
They also want all notes or emails which include any reference to the meeting, adding that a March 1, 2013 memorandum prepared by USP Allenwood Warden Donna Zickefoose directed computer services to “retract an email from [Chaplain] Ngozi Osuji from all In Boxes and Sent boxes” that pertained to Con-Ui.
Con-Ui was at Canaan serving an 11-year prison sentence stemming from a 2003 guilty plea for his role in a wide-scale drug ring run by the New Mexican mafia. Following that sentence, he was scheduled to begin serving a life sentence after pleading guilty in 2008 to first-degree murder.
U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo in a directive to last month scheduled the trial to begin July 11, 2016.