The suspect in the killing of federal correctional officer Eric Williams had much more freedom at the U.S. Penitentiary at Canaan than he did when he was imprisoned in Arizona.
That state treats members of violent prison gangs, like Jessie Con-ui and his New Mexican Mafia cohorts, as major security threats and keeps them locked away in isolation for 23 hours a day, prison officials there said.
At Canaan, it appeared Mr. Con-ui was in the general population, free to leave his cell for meals and other activities and free to ambush Officer Williams just before lockdown on Feb. 25.
"We had him listed as a member of the (new) Mexican Mafia. We housed him in a lockdown setting. At that time, he was doing his time, awaiting his case," Sgt. D. Gomez, intelligence supervisor for the Fourth Avenue Jail in Maricopa County, Ariz., said.
Mr. Con-ui, 36, spent five years in maximum-security custody at the Maricopa County facility before entering a plea agreement and being sentenced for killing a gang rival in Phoenix and aiding a prison drug ring, court and prison records show.
A Maricopa County judge sentenced Mr. Con-ui in June 2008 to life with the possibility of parole in 25 years, but ordered him to first report to federal prison to serve the remainder of an 11-year sentence for his role in a New Mexican Mafia drug-trafficking ring.
In federal prison, Mr. Con-ui's gang status was not enough to keep him in isolated, maximum-security custody as it was in Arizona, officials said.
"Just gang affiliation. No. We don't just isolate gang members," Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman Chris Burke said. "We don't do that just based on gang affiliation. It's based on the specific security needs of the inmate."
Members of the New Mexican Mafia, which sprung up in the Arizona prison system in the 1980s, have a reputation for violence and for continuing to operate their crime syndicate from behind prison walls.
"It's one of the most dangerous prison gangs we have in Arizona," Sgt. Gomez said.
Mr. Con-ui was scheduled to complete his federal sentence in September and would have been immediately returned back to Arizona to begin serving his life term for the 2002 murder.
The day after Officer Williams' death, prison officials swiftly transferred Mr. Con-ui from Canaan to a high-security prison in Allenwood, Union County, Mr. Burke said. Mr. Con-ui has yet to be charged in Officer Williams' death, but could remain there indefinitely as the investigation continues.
Officer Williams died after an inmate ambush as he made his rounds for nightly lockdown. The 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. Officer Williams was alone on a cell block of more than 100 inmates, union officials said.
Chief U.S. District Judge Yvette Kane identified Mr. Con-ui as the suspect this week in an order appointing a pair of death-penalty certified attorneys to represent him, signaling the possibility prosecutors will file a capital murder charge against him.
Mr. Con-ui entered the federal prison system Sept. 2, 2008. He spent time at three high-security federal prisons - in California, Louisiana and Florida - before being transferred to Canaan on Oct. 3, 2011, Mr. Burke said.
Mr. Burke would not discuss the reasons for Mr. Con-ui's multiple transfers within the federal prison system or if so many prison swaps is normal.
"We don't discuss the reasons we transfer particular inmates," Mr. Burke said. "It varies. There's a lot of different reasons."
Mr. Burke also declined to discuss whether Mr. Con-ui had any disciplinary infractions.
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