Jessie Con-ui started drinking at 12 and killing at 25.
The inmate accused of the brutal murder of a correctional officer at the U.S. Penitentiary at Canaan three weeks ago executed a gang rival outside an East Phoenix, Ariz., laundry facility in 2002; acted as the enforcer in a drug trafficking operation; and, while in jail in 2007 and 2008, aided the gang's distribution of drugs and proceeds from drug sales.
The execution, law enforcement officials said, afforded Mr. Con-ui "good standing" within the violent New Mexican Mafia. The gang became like a second family for the Filipino immigrant whose relatives distanced themselves as he descended into a life of crime.
Police reports and other court records include repeated mentions of the now 36-year-old Mr. Con-ui's involvement with the New Mexican Mafia. His role in the gang's cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine trade led to an 11-year federal prison sentence and his transfer to Canaan.
Mr. Con-ui arrived at the Wayne County facility in October 2011 after stops at three other federal penitentiaries. Correctional officer Eric Williams, 34, died after Mr. Con-ui beat and stabbed him as he made his rounds on Feb. 25, authorities say.
Mr. Con-ui was scheduled to complete his federal sentence in September and would have been returned to Arizona to begin serving his life term for the 2002 murder. If found guilty of Officer Williams' murder, he could face the death penalty.
Mr. Con-ui's journey began in Angeles City in the Philippines. He lived there for 10 years before his mother, Teresita, and stepfather, Gary Sliney, moved the family to Rome, N.Y. - a three-hour drive up Interstate 81 from Officer Williams' hometown of Nanticoke. The family moved to Arizona in 1994.
Already using alcohol and drugs, Mr. Con-ui dropped out of school after the eighth grade, according to court records. He experimented with cocaine, spent $200 to $300 a week on methamphetamine and drank three cases of beer a week. He joined a gang called the Eastside Locos, and was soon in the Arizona prison system for a string of car thefts. It was there he met the New Mexican Mafia.
The New Mexican Mafia is considered the most lethal organized crime syndicate the state of Arizona has ever known.
Formed by prison inmates in Arizona in the mid-1980s, the gang is a major player in pushing methamphetamine, cocaine and other drugs throughout the southwest and inside its prisons.
And crossing the gang can cost you your life.
During the prosecution of 13 of the gang's leaders over the last decade, a detective was targeted for death, prosecutors started carrying guns and a judge demanded bodyguards and bulletproof glass for her court. Eight government witnesses were executed.
"These guys are killing machines," a law enforcement officer targeted by the gang told The Arizona Republic newspaper.
"It's one of the most dangerous prison gangs we have in Arizona," said Sgt. D. Gomez, intelligence supervisor for Maricopa County's Fourth Avenue Jail. Mexican Mafia members are placed in maximum-security isolation for 23 hours a day, he said.
"They have a propensity to try to jeopardize the security of the jail," Sgt. Gomez said. "In Arizona, they are considered a security threat because they are a prison gang. They are pretty much placed in a lockdown setting."
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msisak@citizensvoice.com, @cvmikesisak on Twitter bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com, @cvbobkal on Twitter