A former lieutenant at the highest-security prison in the U.S. denied an allegation raised at a federal murder trial that he knew a hit was planned in the Mexican Mafia recreation yard but allowed a fatal confrontation to happen anyway.
The allegation was raised Thursday during a highly confrontational cross-examination of retired Lt. Jason Walters by David Lane, a defense attorney for first-degree-murder defendant Silvestre “Chikali” Rivera in U.S. District Court in Denver.
“Did you or did you not tell Ron Suhosky — did you ask him whether he brought his running shoes to work?” Lane asked loudly.
“No.”
Lane then explained to Walters that Suhosky, a correctional officer at Administrative Maximum U.S. Penitentiary in Florence, or ADX, revealed Wednesday that Walters had told him about a “hit” going down in Echo, or E-unit, when the Mexican Mafia gang members were scheduled to have recreation that morning.
Rivera is accused of fatally stomping Manuel “Tati” Torrez on April 21, 2005. Rivera faces a possible life prison sentence. His alleged accomplice, Richard “Chuco” Santiago, who will be tried separately later, faces a possible death penalty.
Rivera and Santiago don’t deny killing Torrez, but they claim it was in self-defense because Torrez, a leader of the Mexican Mafia, had ordered a hit on them.
They say they didn’t know about the hit until Torrez boasted in prison lingo that he would have them both killed. By then, they claim there was no opportunity to notify officers, and they say their choice was to kill or be killed.
Several government witnesses have testified about numerous ways that Rivera could have tipped authorities about his fears beforehand without letting other inmates know. They say they would not have placed Rivera and Torrez together in the same recreation yard.
During cross-examination, Lane explained details about what Suhosky had revealed the day before in the form of questions. Lane said when Suhosky asked Walters why he needed tennis shoes, his boss told him about an assault that was going down in the Mexican Mafia yard that same morning, Lane said.
Lane said Suhosky had opened up because his conscience had been weighing on him heavily the past 10 years.
“Are you saying unequivocally … that this exchange did not occur?” Lane asked. Walters said it did not.
“I don’t know what he is thinking,” Walters said, referring to Suhosky’s allegation.
Walters acknowledged that failing to tell his superiors would have constituted dereliction of duty, warranting disciplinary action.
He also acknowledged that the prison had only two staff members monitoring seven recreation yards containing about 75 convicts simultaneously and that the yards contained the most dangerous, unmanageable inmates in the U.S.
Under redirect by prosecutor Valeria Spencer, Walters repeated his denial that he never received any intelligence about such a hit going down.
“I certainly would have told all our supervisors what was going to go down,” Walters replied to another question by Spencer.
Also Thursday, a correctional officer who monitored the exercise yards on a bank of 28 TV screens gave a sometimes-emotional account of how he missed seeing two men stomp another inmate to death.
Former officer Joe Gaudian said sun glare, too many monitors for just two officers to track at once and the complicity of role-playing inmates called the “worst of the worst” in America all contributed in foiling Gaudian and a companion’s ability to spot the fight until it was too late.
