Inmate accused of killing prison guard in ID’d


March 12, 2013 at 8:39a.m.

Inmate accused of killing prison guard in ID’d

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — Authorities have identified the inmate accused of killing a federal corrections officer at a prison in northeastern Pennsylvania last month.

The Citizens’ Voice reports 36-year-old Jessie Con-ui was jailed at the facility in Wayne County on an 11-year sentence for his role in an Arizona drug-trafficking operation. He had been scheduled to complete the federal sentence in September and would have been returned to Arizona to begin serving a life term for a 2002 murder.

Now, authorities say Con-ui is the suspect in the Feb. 25 killing of Corrections Officer Eric Williams, who was working in a housing unit when an inmate using a homemade weapon attacked him.

On Monday, Chief U.S. District Judge Yvette Kane assigned Con-ui a death penalty-certified attorney to represent him throughout the investigation.