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WILKES-BARRE — A prison surveillance video that prosecutors say captured the vicious killing of a Nanticoke corrections officer at the hands of an inmate can be shown to jurors at trial, a federal judge ordered this week.
Attorneys for Jessie Con-ui had sought to keep video of the nine-minute attack and its aftermath out of evidence when the capital murder case is scheduled to go before a jury next month, claiming its “disturbing” content would inflame jurors’ emotions. But a judge Wednesday allowed the one-time presentation of the footage during the trial’s guilt phase.
The video, federal prosecutors argued, provides a “unique glimpse of the nature and brutality” of Eric Williams’ 2013 murder, described in court documents as a surprise attack on an unsuspecting and ultimately defenseless guard.
Con-ui’s guilt has not been contested by his attorneys. His attack on Williams was retaliation for abuse from guards inside U.S. Penitentiary Canaan in Wayne County, where the inmate was serving 25 years to life for a 2002 gang initiation murder in Arizona, defense attorneys argue.
Federal prosecutors say the footage shows Con-ui, 40, beat and stab Williams, 24, to death with two homemade shanks inside the prison. The inmate pauses to wrap a wound he suffered from the flurry of thrusts into Williams’ body and later to chew a piece of gum he pried from the dying guard’s pocket before resuming the assault.
U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo’s order — among several issued Wednesday — permitted federal prosecutors to edit portions of the footage into one continuous loop. They may use up to five stills from the video and five photographs from Williams’ autopsy during the trial’s penalty phase. They can also present one photo of Williams’ face immediately following the attack and one photo of the crime scene.
Caputo barred testimony regarding Con-ui’s alleged involvement in a plan to attack fellow inmates at an Arizona state prison in 1999 and the assault of an inmate with a metal food tray at the facility the following year. The judge allowed the testimony of Officer James Cobos regarding an alleged threat to a corrections officer in 2009 at a federal prison in California.
Caputo deferred a ruling on Con-ui’s alleged agreement in 2003 to participate in the killing of an Arizona law enforcement officer until a later time.
Con-ui remains jailed at ADX Florence, a super-maximum security prison in Colorado.
His trial is scheduled to begin April 24.