Aryan Brotherhood defendant says guards at Sacramento prison conspired to kill inmates
Lawyers for an Aryan Brotherhood inmate held at California State Prison, Sacramento, have stepped up their efforts to have their client moved to a new facility, filing new allegations that guards there have been involved in killing inmates and planted evidence against others.
The filing late Monday on behalf of Brant Daniel, an Aryan Brotherhood member since 2013 who is one of several defendants in a massive federal racketeering case, is the latest in a number of efforts to attack the government’s case and to seek improved housing conditions for some of the defendants.
Daniel, who faces the potential of a death penalty prosecution and is accused in the October 2016 slaying of Salinas Valley State Prison inmate Zachary Scott, has been protesting his detention in a psychiatric unit at the state prison, known as New Folsom, and has been seeking a transfer based on his claims that guards have planted evidence in his cell and threatened him.
Now, attorneys John Balazs and Timothy Warriner claim in court papers to have a “reliable confidential source” who has disputed prison officials’ claims that Daniel had conspired to kill a guard with a shank found in his cell.
“Among other things, the CS has advised that rogue officers at CSP-Sacramento have planted weapons and drugs in inmates’ cells in order to obtain more overtime, have spread false rumors and relayed confidential information from inmates’ files to other inmates in violation of CDCR policy, and on at least two occasions have been directly involved in the killing of a CSP-Sacramento inmate,” the lawyers wrote in a filing asking that such evidence be turned over to them.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation did not respond to a request for comment Monday, and has declined previously to comment on similar allegations.
But Daniel’s lawyers say they are “entitled to this evidence to show why CDCR’s charge is false and why the government should not use the allegations in any way in deciding whether to seek the death penalty against Daniel or for any other purpose.”
“An allegation of a recent plot to kill a correctional officer is obviously a serious charge that would be used by the Department of Justice in deciding whether to seek the death penalty,” the lawyers wrote, adding that before the latest case “Daniel has never been charged with any violence against an officer in 26 years in CDCR custody.”
Daniel’s lawyers have claimed that guards were involved in the Dec. 12, 2019, killing of inmate Luis Giovanny Aguilar, a case that has resulted in charges against three inmates: Anthony Rodriguez, Cody Taylor and Dion Green.
Now, they say, they have received information “to believe correctional officers were complicit in the killing of Aguilar” and that evidence to back that up is contained in a declaration from their source that they filed under seal.
“As set forth in the accompanying declaration, the CS has advised counsel that video recordings and other evidence establish that correctional officers were complicit in the killing of inmate Aguilar,” they wrote. “This includes video evidence that staff allowed the inmates to do a practice run about seven days before the actual killing.
“Other evidence shows that officers provided the inmates committing the homicide false information that Aguilar was a child sex offender, knowing that the information would cause him to be targeted for murder. After the killing, officers are believed to have falsely reported that Aguilar’s killing was gang related.”
Federal prosecutors have dismissed Daniel’s complaints, referring to him in court filings as “an AB member with an egregious 24-year history of prison violence, including murder, conspiracy to commit murder, manslaughter, battery with a deadly weapon (twice), and battery on an inmate with serious injury.”
“When Daniel first arrived at CSP-Sacramento, he was placed in the Administrative Segregation Unit due to the threat to the general population and security to the institution,” prosecutors wrote. “However, Daniel was recently moved from administrative segregation to the psychiatric services unit (PSU) after he allegedly conspired to kill a guard who works in the administrative segregation unit.
“In October 2020, a confidential informant told prison investigators that Daniel was planning to assault or murder a correctional officer assigned to the administrative segregation unit and that Daniel had an inmate-manufactured weapon hidden in his mattress. ... Investigators searched Daniel’s cell — which he occupied alone — and found a six-inch long manufactured weapon hidden in his mattress.”
U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller has scheduled a May 3 hearing on the attorneys’ filings.
Daniel’s lawyers have previously noted Sacramento Bee coverage of cases involving alleged abuse inside the prison, including one involving the death of a 65-year-old inmate in 2016 who allegedly was tripped while handcuffed as he was being escorted by two guards.
One of the guards, Ashley Marie Aurich, pleaded guilty in that case, which accuses her and another guard of filing false reports about how the inmate died.
In Monday’s filing, the lawyers included a copy of a Sacramento Bee story on the death of guard Valentino Rodriguez Jr., who “died from an apparent suicide or drug overdose after being subject to harassment and retaliation from other correctional officers,” court papers say.
Daniel’s lawyers also have said Daniel’s living arrangements in the psychiatric unit, where he is subjected to constant screams and cries from fellow inmates, amounts to “torture.”
Defendants in the pending Aryan Brotherhood case, which alleges a conspiracy among inmates using smuggled cell phones to order hits inside and outside prisons and sell drugs, have filed a number of complaints and lawsuits over conditions at New Folsom and the Sacramento County Jail, alleging they are constantly being moved to different cells, do not have access to confidential meeting spaces with their attorneys and have not been protected against COVID-19.
This story was originally published April 20, 2021 at 7:22 AM with the headline "Aryan Brotherhood defendant says guards at Sacramento prison conspired to kill inmates."