This covers death of Mark Frederick HansonNovember 2011 Colorado:
Department of Corrections officials will meet in Sterling today to try to understand why four inmates have been killed at the prison there in the past two years.
DOC executive director Tom Clements said he is meeting with Sterling Correctional Facility warden Kevin Milyard to be debriefed on each of the cases.
"We're looking at cell assignment protocols," Clements said. "We want to see if there are any common denominators. It's got my attention."
The focus is on Sterling because all other prisons in DOC have a total of just three murders in roughly the same time frame. .... ....
Five days earlier, convicted sex offender Mark Frederick Hanson, who was serving a two-year prison term for repeatedly failing to register as a sex offender, also was beaten to death at Sterling. Three of the four inmates killed there in the past 21 months were behind bars for either sex offenses or crimes against children. ....
Sanguinetti said DOC regularly takes measures to protect threatened sex offenders or child abusers or killers, including segregating them from the general population.
She said the inmates suspected of killing White and Hanson, who was murdered Nov. 25, are in segregation. The two were held in different sections of the prison, Sanguinetti said.
Hanson was in prison after three convictions for failing to register as a sex offender. ..Source.. by Kirk Mitchell
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Murders of prison inmates in Sterling, Colo., spur state review
12-15-2011:
Department of Corrections officials will meet in Sterling today to try to understand why four inmates have been killed at the prison there in the past two years.
DOC executive director Tom Clements said he is meeting with Sterling Correctional Facility warden Kevin Milyard to be debriefed on each of the cases.
"We're looking at cell assignment protocols," Clements said. "We want to see if there are any common denominators. It's got my attention."
The focus is on Sterling because all other prisons in DOC have a total of just three murders in roughly the same time frame.
The most recent Sterling case was Lyle Brent White, a convicted child killer who had told his sister he feared for his life before he was beaten to death.
"He's been threatened ever since he's been in there," said White's sister Elizabeth. "This totally could have been prevented."
An inmate who beat White to death Dec. 1 at Sterling told investigators the "cho-mo" — or child molester — got what he deserved, his sister said.
White had not been convicted of a sex crime but was behind bars for the murder of an 11-year-old boy.
Five days earlier, convicted sex offender Mark Frederick Hanson, who was serving a two-year prison term for repeatedly failing to register as a sex offender, also was beaten to death at Sterling. Three of the four inmates killed there in the past 21 months were behind bars for either sex offenses or crimes against children.
The rash of prison murders is extraordinary in a county that will go years without a single homicide, Logan County District Attorney Robert Watson said.
Watson said that errors in prison classifications or placements may have contributed to the deaths.
DOC spokeswoman Kath erine Sanguinetti said Sterling has more than 2,500 convicted felons, or more than 10 percent of the state's prisoners, and violent confrontations do occur.
"Unfortunately, no matter how hard we try to protect them, sometimes this kind of thing happens," she said.
White's sister said investigators contacted family members a day after he was killed, asking whether he told them about any threats. He had, she said, adding that he had repeatedly been taunted about being a child killer.
White was convicted of killing 11-year-old Centennial Elementary School fifth-grader Antonio Davalos, then throwing the boy's body into a trash bin in Littleton.
Initially, DOC officials moved him out of state, including a stint in Idaho, because his crime made him a target. But he was returned to Colorado several years ago, White's sister said. Despite his repeated reports to staff that he was threatened, White remained in general-population cell blocks, where other inmates learned his background.
Sanguinetti said DOC regularly takes measures to protect threatened sex offenders or child abusers or killers, including segregating them from the general population.
She said the inmates suspected of killing White and Hanson, who was murdered Nov. 25, are in segregation. The two were held in different sections of the prison, Sanguinetti said.
Hanson was in prison after three convictions for failing to register as a sex offender.
In another case, Jaime Rodriguez, 29, has been charged with first-degree murder in the Jan. 13, 2010, beating death of David Guerrero-Estrada in his cell. Guerrero-Estrada was convicted in 2007 of attempted sexual assault of a child and sentenced to three years in prison.
Rodriguez has been found mentally incompetent and is being evaluated and treated at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo.
Two Sterling inmates are suspected in the murder of habitual burglar Cleveland Flood, 38, who was beaten to death in February 2010. Watson said charges could be filed next month. He declined to name the suspects. ..Source.. by Kirk Mitchell
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