Guard kills handcuffed inmate, another handcuffed inmate charged with murder

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nevada-prison-guards-accused-of-instigating-gladiator-style-brawl-that-turned-deadly/

This much is certain: Two handcuffed inmates at one of Nevada's toughest prisons brawled in a hallway, and one ended up dead from several shotgun blasts. The other was declared guilty of murder, even though he never touched a gun.

Prison officials acknowledged the death in November with only a short statement, and for months they never mentioned that a weapon was involved or that it had been fired by a trainee guard.

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Now attorneys for both inmates are accusing prison guards of instigating the fight to set up a gladiator-style contest and then trying to cover it up by blaming the surviving prisoner.

Prison officials have been slow to release essential details, and they recently withdrew the murder allegation after disclosing the trainee's involvement.

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It all started Nov. 12 deep inside the largest of Nevada's 22 prison facilities, which houses about a quarter of the state's 12,700 inmates.

Arevalo, 24, and Carlos Manuel Perez Jr., 28, were both released into the hall and soon were on the floor, kicking at each other with their hands cuffed behind their backs.

A Nov. 13 report by the trainee guard describes how he warned the men to stop fighting, fired one blank, issued more warnings and then fired three live rounds down the hall. At that point, he said, he stopped to reload.

"They continued kicking each other even though they were bleeding," the guard wrote.

Perez died of gunshot wounds to the head, neck, chest and arms. Arevalo suffered similar wounds but survived.

Guards have a history of using gunfire to control the 4,200 inmates at the prison about 45 miles outside Las Vegas.

Records show guards fired 215 shots in a five-year span, including 60 rounds in 2011, the latest year for which figures are available. That was nearly twice the total of 124 shots fired by guards during the same period at all the state's other prisons combined.

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By the end of January, prison administrators held a hearing and declared Arevalo responsible for murder, assault and battery. He was sentenced to 18 months in the isolation cell known as "the hole," according to prison disciplinary forms provided to the AP. The prison administrative process is separate from criminal courts.

Last week, months after Arevalo was put in isolation, prison officials withdrew the murder and assault allegations after objections from his lawyer and repeated questions from the AP.

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