He's a cold-blooded killer.
Jessie Con-ui, already jailed for life for killing a gang rival in Arizona, has been identified as the suspect in the Feb. 25 murder of correctional officer Eric Williams at the U.S. Penitentiary at Canaan in Wayne County.
That killing could carry a death sentence, Chief U.S. District Judge Yvette Kane said Monday, as she assigned a pre-eminent death penalty-certified attorney to represent him throughout the investigation and potential prosecution.
Mr. Con-ui, an enforcer for the violent New Mexican Mafia gang, was jailed at Canaan at the time of Mr. Williams' death on an 11-year sentence for his role in the gang's Arizona drug-trafficking operation.
Mr. Con-ui, 36, was scheduled to complete the federal sentence in September and would have immediately been returned to Arizona to begin serving his life term for the 2002 murder.
After Mr. Williams' death, prison officials swiftly transferred Mr. Con-ui to a high-security prison in Allenwood, Union County, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons and correctional officers with knowledge of the investigation.
He could remain there indefinitely.
Mr. Williams died after an inmate blindsided and attacked him as he made his rounds for nightly lockdown between 9:45 and 10 p.m.
The attacking inmate hurled the 34-year-old Nanticoke native down a set of steps and pounced, beating him and repeatedly stabbing him with a crude, knife-like weapon known as a "shank."
Mr. Williams' parents, Donald and Jean, said Monday they had read online news reports that identified Mr. Con-ui as the attacking inmate and detailed his criminal history.
Both said they would rather not comment at this time.
Prison administrators and officials with the national union representing correctional officers at Canaan did not return telephone messages Monday.
The appointed attorneys - James E. Swetz, of Stroudsburg, and Mark Fleming, of San Diego - did not return messages Monday. Mr. Fleming, the renowned death-penalty expert, has represented a number of high-profile murder suspects, including Jared Loughner, who killed six people in Tuscon, Ariz., during an assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in January 2011.
Court records in Arizona and federal courts showed Mr. Con-ui as a climber in the New Mexican Mafia, using violence and other means to win favor with other gang members while they trafficked marijuana, methamphetamines and cocaine throughout the southwest.
Mr. Con-ui and two other gang members fatally shot Carlos Garcia outside a laundry facility in East Phoenix, Ariz., in August 2002 to "further or assist" the gang's criminal conduct, according to state prosecutors and Maricopa County, Ariz., court records.
Fourteen months later, federal investigators charged Mr. Con-ui and six other gang members in a widespread drug-trafficking scheme. Mr. Con-ui pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and was sentenced to the 11-year term that eventually led him to Canaan.
A presentence report for a co-defendant in the drug trafficking case described Mr. Con-ui as possessing a weapon and said the New Mexican Mafia's role in the operation "was to provide security during the delivery of the drugs."
During the investigation, federal prosecutor Glenn B. McCormick wrote in a court filing, members of the gang were observed sending heroin to incarcerated members, talking about drug deals, taking part in drug deals and talking about people they need to murder - including police officers.
"The investigators were also aware of prior activities of other members who had been hired to commit murders in other states, committed armed robberies, and engaged in drug trafficking," Mr. McCormick wrote. "The members of the New Mexican Mafia have shown a propensity to do anything, including commit murder, to further their interests."
In February 2005, Phoenix police and Maricopa County prosecutors determined taking out a rival outside a laundry facility might have been part of that mission. They charged Mr. Con-ui, Johnny Frederick Farinas and Manuel Medrano with the murder of Carlos Garcia.
Mr. Con-ui pleaded guilty and Judge Warren J. Granville sentenced him in July 2008 to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years. The sentence, he said, would run concurrently to Mr. Con-ui's federal term and a five-year sentence for a prison money laundering and drug operation that bloomed in 2007 and 2008.
"History shows that this organization is opportunistic and more than willing to go to great lengths to profit financially and extend their power," M.r McCormick wrote of the New Mexican Mafia in a brief justifying the means of the drug trafficking investigation.
The gang, he wrote, "commit crimes for as much profit as they can and to extend their reign of power through intimidation and acts of violence. Transporting drugs for profit while relying on their willingness to commit crimes of violence to protect those drugs is a tailor-made crime for the New Mexican Mafia."
Contact the writers: msisak@citizensvoice.com, @cvmikesisak bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com, @cvbobkal djanoski@citizensvoice.com, @davejanoski