1 of three killed in Nevada jail brawl was white supremacist gang member who killed an inmate in 2016
RENO, Nev. (AP) — One in all three inmates killed in a Nevada prison brawl this week was a member of a white supremacist jail gang who was serving a life sentence for his position within the 2016 homicide at one other Nevada jail, authorities stated Friday.
The native county sheriff recognized Anthony Williams, 41, because the third of the three folks killed in Tuesday’s combat at Nevada’s most safety jail in rural Ely. 9 different inmates had been injured.
Jail and state officers have launched few particulars since then, though White Pine County Sheriff Scott Henriod confirmed Friday that every one three males died of stab wounds, or “a number of sharp pressure accidents.”
“That is an ongoing investigation,” Henriod stated in an electronic mail to The Related Press.
The opposite victims recognized earlier had been Connor Brown, 22, of South Lake Tahoe, California, and Zacharia Luz, 42, of Las Vegas.
Luz was recognized as a street-level chief of the Aryan Warriors white supremacist jail gang. He and Williams had been amongst 23 reputed members of the gang who had been indicted in a sweeping racketeering case in Las Vegas involving homicide, drug trafficking and id theft in 2019.
That indictment tied Williams and one other particular person to the 2016 stabbing demise of Andrew Ryan Thurgood in a cell at Excessive Desert State Jail in southern Nevada.
Williams pleaded responsible to open homicide in Las Vegas in 2021 in a plea deal that took the demise penalty off the desk. He additionally was convicted of being a ordinary offender and was sentenced to life with out parole on the jail in Ely, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) west of the Utah line, the Nevada Division of Corrections stated.
Luz was sentenced final 12 months to seven to 18 years in jail for his conviction on felony racketeering and forgery costs, the division stated.
Brown was serving a seven- to 20-year sentence for theft with use of a lethal weapon, the division stated. He was sentenced in 2021 after pleading responsible to stabbing a fuel station clerk and a on line casino patron in downtown Reno in 2020.
Authorities haven’t stated what prompted the violence on the jail this week. Henriod stated sheriff’s deputies had been summoned about 9:40 a.m. on Tuesday.
No corrections officers had been injured, jail officers stated.
Ely State Jail is one in every of six Nevada prisons. It has nearly 1,200 beds and homes the state’s demise row for convicted killers and a deadly injection chamber that has by no means been used. Nevada has not carried out an execution since 2006.
Circumstances behind bars within the state have drawn criticism from advocates, significantly throughout scorching summers and chilly winters. In December 2022, a number of folks incarcerated at Ely State Jail held a hunger strike over what advocates and a few members of the family described as unsafe conditions and insufficient meals parts.
Efforts stalled earlier than reaching the state Legislature final 12 months to answer a yearslong state audit that discovered widespread deficiencies in jail use-of-force insurance policies.
