Defense says witness played major role in prison riot

WILMINGTON, DEL. >> The star prosecution witness in the trial of four Delaware inmates charged with murder, kidnapping and other crimes after a fatal prison riot played a key role in the disturbance and likely ordered the killing of a prison guard, a defense attorney claimed during opening statements Monday.

Attorney Jason Antoine also warned jurors that they will encounter a lot of inconsistencies during the trial, which could last up to four weeks, and that the prosecution’s case is based on “unreliable inmate information.”

Inmates at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center, Delaware’s maximumsecurity prison, rioted Feb. 1 last year, killing prison guard Steven Floyd and taking three other staffers hostage. Two other prison guards were released by inmates after being beaten and tormented. A female counselor was held hostage for almost 20 hours before tactical teams burst through a wall with a backhoe and rescued her.

“The attack was vicious, it was tragically effective, and it was planned,” prosecutor Nichole Warner told jurors Monday before reciting a chronology of the riot, which she said broke out after Floyd called in prisoners from the recreation yard.

Floyd was immediately overcome by inmates, who stuffed him in a mop closet and repeatedly beat and stabbed him. Tactical responders found him handcuffed in his office, face down in about 2 inches (5 centimeters) of water. Warner said he died of multiple blunt trauma and stab wounds.

While investigators have been unable to pin down exactly when Floyd was killed, Warner indicated that fellow guard Joshua Wilkinson, who was taken hostage, heard Floyd being attacked several hours after the riot had begun.

“He heard Sergeant Floyd whimpering, he heard objects hitting a body,” she said. “And when the attack was over, he heard Sergeant Floyd moaning for a period of time. And then, he didn’t.”

The defendants say prosecutors have no evidence that they planned or participated in the riot, only unreliable testimony from other inmates trying to gain leniency or prison privileges.