00:00:06
SAM DOUGLAS: In the United
States of America, some of the world's
most infamous criminals
00:00:11
are behind bars. Locked up and heavily guarded
in a maximum security prison is the vicious
killer Jessie Con-ui.
00:00:21
- He is one of the most
dangerous, violent prisoners in the Bureau of Prisons. He has the track
record to prove it.
00:00:31
- You could just sense
evil on different inmates. He would have been
one of those inmates.
00:00:37
SAM DOUGLAS:
Con-ui got involved with a faction
of the notorious Mexican Mafia. - He's killed for this gang.
00:00:44
He's killed a friend
for this gang. He not only thinks he's above
the law when he's in society,
00:00:49
he thinks he's above
the law when he's in prison. PAUL LOPEZ: He actually
stabbed an inmate,
00:00:54
then assaulted another inmate
using a metal food tray. SAM DOUGLAS: He
committed a crime
00:01:02
so atrocious it
sent shock waves throughout the entire
US prison system. FRANK MARCELL: The murder
case of Officer Williams ranks
00:01:11
as one of the most horrific
murders of prison history. - Jessie Con-ui was
laying in wait to strike,
00:01:19
attacking him, punching him,
kicking him, stabbing him. - This was the worst thing I've
ever seen in my entire career.
00:01:26
- He's willing to kill
you because you looked at him the wrong way. - Con-ui is going to murder
whoever he needs to murder.
00:01:34
VITO MARAVIGLIA: He had
no regard for human life. He had no regard
for anything or anyone.
00:01:40
[theme music] SAM DOUGLAS: Near
the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania, is the US
penitentiary, Canaan.
00:02:13
It holds around 1,500 inmates. FRANK MARCELL: It's
a level three prison. It's the next stop
before maximum security.
00:02:24
All the inmates in that
prison are either facing 25 to life,
many murderers within their high-profile
inmates.
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BRIAN SUDUL: My name
is Brian Sudul. I was a lieutenant
at USP Canaan. Stressful, stressful.
00:02:47
Dangerous, gang-ridden, the
Major League of corrections. You're responsible
for staff members,
00:02:53
and you're responsible for
every inmate and their safety. You have to ensure that
they're breathing every day.
00:02:59
That's why we have
standing counts, so we know every
inmate is alive. It's no joke.
00:03:07
FRANK MARCELL: The prisons
are run by the prison administrators, but there's
no doubt about it
00:03:12
that the inmates have
a lot to do with that. You may have one
officer on a yard with several hundred inmates,
so you can't fool yourself.
00:03:21
The inmates have
a large control of that. BRIAN SUDUL: You have to assume
every inmate is dangerous.
00:03:28
No matter how hard
they work for you, no matter how decent
they speak to you, they can cause some
serious damage.
00:03:36
They are inherently dangerous,
and they aren't your friend. SAM DOUGLAS: One of the most
shocking crimes ever committed
00:03:44
against a corrections
officer occurred at Canaan by inmate Jessie Con-ui. FRANK MARCELL: You can't doubt
how serious of an individual
00:03:59
he is. Wherever he's housed,
correctional officers have to be on their toes. I think they have
to expect anything.
00:04:07
VITO MARAVIGLIA:
Someone like Con-ui has that kind
of mindset where he's just willing to kill anybody.
00:04:14
- He is inherently evil
to his core, in his soul. VITO MARAVIGLIA: Pretty
much his whole life
00:04:19
he's been violent. If given the opportunity,
I don't think there would be any doubt that
he would attempt to kill again.
00:04:31
SAM DOUGLAS: January
17, 1977, Jessie Con-ui was born in Manila,
the capital of the Philippines.
00:04:40
He grew up in one
of its largest slums. JIM HAMILL: Jessie Con-ui had
a sister and two brothers.
00:04:47
When Jessie Con-ui
was a little boy, his family struggled because
they didn't have running water,
00:04:53
and they had to rely
on a local church to support them
for their needs. - His father would often abuse
his mother, which the children
00:05:05
sometimes would hear. Ultimately, the father left
when he was pretty young. LINA HAJI: Even though
he's only three,
00:05:17
there's some research that
indicates that children can make memories as early
as the age of three,
00:05:23
so witnessing domestic
violence can certainly result in developmental
problems, problems with
impulsivity, depression,
00:05:32
anxiety, embarrassment, shame. So there's already a potential
for negative outcomes
00:05:40
by him witnessing his father
beating on his mother. - The family had
a pretty tremendous loss
00:05:49
at a young age for Jessie. He was only about
four and a half when his younger brother,
who he was very close with,
00:05:55
passed away. His mom then met a gentleman
who became his stepfather. So quite the tumultuous
time in Jessie's life.
00:06:05
SAM DOUGLAS: Con-ui's
mother's new partner was an American serviceman she
met while running a barbecue
00:06:10
stand outside a US Air
Force base in Manila. When he was nine, Con-ui's
family relocated to America,
00:06:20
settling in the city
of Rome, New York, but the fresh start soon
turned sour for him.
00:06:27
- That was a very difficult
time frame for him to adjust to the English language.
00:06:33
He struggled there and was
picked on by kids in school. From a developmental
standpoint,
00:06:38
he had a lot of uphill
battles because of that move from
the Philippines to the United States.
00:06:46
LINA HAJI: When we hear stories
like that, we're thinking, wow, what a chance
at the American dream.
00:06:51
His life is going to be great
now and all for the better. And while that's
plausible, we also
00:06:57
have to remember
that for a child to be taken out of their
environment, as horrible
00:07:01
as that environment may be,
there's still familiarity and comfort in that environment.
00:07:06
Con-ui is drastically uprooted. He was ostracized,
and he was bullied. The ramifications
of that are just
00:07:13
kind of reinforcing
that he doesn't have a place in the world
that seems to potentially
00:07:19
have a negative effect
on him in childhood as well as later on in life. SAM DOUGLAS: When
Con-ui was 16,
00:07:27
his family moved again,
this time across the country to Phoenix, Arizona. - Con-ui, now he's
being uprooted again.
00:07:38
So this is him having
to start from scratch and fit in and avoid
being bullied. SAM DOUGLAS: Con-ui
didn't react well.
00:07:47
PAUL LOPEZ: He
was experimenting with drugs, skipping school
to the point he was expelled.
00:07:53
He was having a lot
of problems at home with his stepfather
at the time, and as a result of them
having constant confrontation,
00:08:00
Jessie was, well, kicked out. SAM DOUGLAS: While his older
brother joined the Air Force
00:08:09
and went on to have
a decorated career, Con-ui drifted into crime. - Jessie tried to enlist
in the military.
00:08:20
However, he was rejected. JIM HAMILL: Over the course
of his young life, Jessie Con-ui faced
a lot of adversity,
00:08:31
but every time he possibly
had a chance to right himself, there wasn't something there to
help him find the right path.
00:08:41
And that only led to a path
of self-destruction, drug use, violence,
and by the time he was 19,
00:08:50
he found himself
in the prison system. SAM DOUGLAS:
In 1996, Con-ui was convicted of two
counts of theft
00:09:00
and sent to the Arizona State
Prison Complex in Winslow. - That's when he
first got to know
00:09:06
the New Mexican Mafia, which
was a gang that he idolized. SAM DOUGLAS: The New Mexican
Mafia came from the original
00:09:15
Mexican Mafia prison gang that
grew out of the Californian penitentiaries in the 1950s.
00:09:22
BRIAN SUDUL: Race plays
a big thing in prison, so people have
to understand that.
00:09:25
If you think the race
stuff on the street is bad, go to prison. VITO MARAVIGLIA:
The Mexican inmates,
00:09:38
they needed protection from
the black and white inmates. They grouped together
to protect themselves.
00:09:49
SAM DOUGLAS: The Californian
Mexican Mafia grew to become one
of America's most powerful
00:09:55
criminal organizations. An offshoot
developed in Arizona with their own
distinctive tattoo.
00:10:01
It was this gang that became
known as the New Mexican Mafia. FRANK MARCELL: As the prison
systems in Arizona grew,
00:10:10
the New Mexican Mafia were
recruiting quite heavily, mainly because they
had rivalry with what
00:10:17
we call the old
Mexican Mafia taking over the Hispanic population,
taking over the drug
00:10:23
activity within the prison. SAM DOUGLAS: Despite
being Filipino in origin, Con-ui affiliated with
the New Mexican Mafia
00:10:32
while serving his
sentence in Arizona. FRANK MARCELL: The Arizona
Mexican Mafia wanted
00:10:38
to increase their numbers. That was their game
plan from the beginning. They were a little more
loose on the recruitment.
00:10:44
That's the way it goes down
inside a prison system. Those that are
strongest, survive.
00:10:50
Those that are weak are used. - What gangs provide is
a sense of false support and a sense
of belonging, and that's
00:11:00
why you see a lot
of adolescents who are kind of astray in life join gangs. For some of these
youths, joining a gang
00:11:08
is their only
sense of identity. SAM DOUGLAS: Locked up
in Winslow prison at 19,
00:11:13
Con-ui quickly gained
a reputation for trouble. - He developed a plan
to stab four inmates.
00:11:20
However, before he could
carry the plan out, a prison informant notified
jail staff of the plan.
00:11:29
Ultimately,
the plan was foiled. JIM HAMILL: Jessie
Con-ui was eventually convicted of making threats.
00:11:37
You could tell
even at that point that Jessie Con-ui was not
by any means a model prisoner.
00:11:42
SAM DOUGLAS: Just
eight months later, Con-ui was back in trouble
with prison authorities.
00:11:47
PAUL LOPEZ: While in Winslow
state penitentiary, Con-ui assaulted an inmate
using a metal food tray.
00:11:59
As a result of that, he had to
attend a disciplinary hearing, to which he pled guilty
to the charge of assaulting
00:12:07
another person with a weapon. LINA HAJI: It's
very interesting because you will
sometimes see inmates
00:12:14
come into prison with
no history of violence and, all of a sudden, start
to commit violent crimes.
00:12:21
Now, with Con-ui,
we have to remember that he could have had
a predisposition to violence,
00:12:27
as evidenced by his father
who used to beat his mother. He also had a very, very harsh,
disciplinarian stepfather.
00:12:35
He also had turned to drugs,
which can be an increased risk factor towards violence.
00:12:41
So Con-ui may have been
predisposed to commit violence, and then his affiliation with
the gang just fostered that.
00:12:55
SAM DOUGLAS: Con-ui's
transgressions added to his sentence in prison. But in December 2001,
after being in for six and
00:13:03
a half years, he was released. - Jessie Con-ui does
get out of prison, but with the understanding
that he does
00:13:10
have to get on the right path. And so he does get
gainfully employed. He does find drug
and alcohol treatment.
00:13:19
SAM DOUGLAS: Con-ui got
a job as an assistant manager at a drug store. He was also
regularly drug-tested
00:13:26
and had 34 consecutive
clean tests over a year. - It does seem like
there might be some hope,
00:13:33
but he is also still tied
in heavily with leadership within the New Mexican Mafia.
00:13:39
SAM DOUGLAS: The New
Mexican mafia's criminal activities stretch
beyond prison onto the streets.
00:13:44
This meant there
was another reason for Con-ui to stay clean. - There was a strict
policy, believe it or not,
00:13:53
amongst the leadership
of the gang, that no drugs to be used whatsoever. - But they're still involved
in doing gang business,
00:14:01
dealing drugs, extortion. SAM DOUGLAS: While,
publicly, Con-ui gave the appearance
of toeing the line,
00:14:09
he was heavily
involved in the gang, working for a man
named Carlos Garcia. PAUL LOPEZ: Garcia
was a made member
00:14:19
of the New Mexican Mafia. Garcia was using Con-ui
and two of his associates to basically run
errands for himself
00:14:28
in the gang such
as general tasks, collecting money,
delivering drugs. - Garcia's influence
on Con-ui is
00:14:39
very typical of gang culture. You see kind of older,
more seasoned members who take younger members
under their wing.
00:14:48
This is seemingly for
protection and brotherhood and nurturance and guidance,
but it's under the guise
00:14:55
of manipulation. It's really what it is. So for Con-ui, he
could be viewing Garcia
00:15:01
as this is my friend,
this is somebody who wants me to do
well, but really, Con-ui
00:15:08
is just serving a purpose,
which is furthering the interests of the gang. PAUL LOPEZ: What
Con-ui didn't know
00:15:15
is that Garcia was lying
to him and was keeping all the money for himself. He also told Con-ui
that he would not
00:15:25
be able to be a made
member of the gang because they weren't currently
accepting any new membership
00:15:32
into their ranks. However, that was--
that was a blatant lie. SAM DOUGLAS: In fact,
it was Garcia
00:15:42
himself who was playing
a dangerous game with the gang. - It was imperative
that members of the gang
00:15:52
keep in contact
with leadership, and Garcia was not doing that. He stopped attending meetings,
and he developed a secret plan
00:16:02
to move to Texas. And as a result, the gang
leadership greenlit his murder. VITO MARAVIGLIA: The New
Mexican Mafia is known
00:16:13
to be a very violent gang. They consider
themselves as blood in, blood out, which means
you have to kill somebody
00:16:19
to get in the gang,
and the only way you leave is if they kill you. - And this was Con-ui's
opportunity to prove himself.
00:16:27
SAM DOUGLAS: Con-ui was told if
he helped to take out Garcia, he could become a made member
of the New Mexican Mafia.
00:16:36
- Con-ui, he's not
only willing to go above and beyond for his gang. He's willing to turn on one of
the people that actually took
00:16:47
him under his wing via murder. SAM DOUGLAS: Garcia
was paranoid, so it was Con-ui's job to lure
his mentor out into the open
00:16:57
where he could be killed. - Con-ui contacted Garcia
and said he was having a problem with his partner.
00:17:08
VITO MARAVIGLIA: The guy
said to him, well, I have an extra apartment. You can come stay
at one of them.
00:17:14
I'm at the laundromat. You can come by. I'll give you the key. So now they knew where he was.
00:17:24
PAUL LOPEZ: When
they met there, while Con-ui distracted
Garcia, two of his associates
00:17:30
shot Garcia in the back
several times. [gunshots] Garcia was able
to flee, however,
00:17:37
was soon caught up to by Con-ui
and one of his associates, where they finished
the job, killing him.
00:17:45
[gunshot] LINA HAJI: Now we're
really starting to see Con-ui's true colors. He's capable of a lot
more than we thought.
00:17:59
He's capable of manipulation. He's the one that lured
Garcia to the scene. He's the one that actually
executed the shot.
00:18:07
Prior to this that we know of,
he had never murdered anyone, so now we're seeing a side
of Con-ui that is probably
00:18:15
going to only get
worse from here, because he's crossed
a lot of lines that there is no
coming back from.
00:18:24
SAM DOUGLAS: Right as Con-ui
escalated his involvement with the gang and became
a made member,
00:18:30
the police began to zero
in on the New Mexican Mafia and their criminal activities.
00:18:38
PAUL LOPEZ: Law enforcement
had created a task force, and they were closely
monitoring all activities
00:18:43
of the New Mexican Mafia. And in fact, they
were able to develop an informant inside the gang.
00:18:50
Now this confidential informant
set up several staged meetings where he was able
to create conversations
00:18:57
where gang members were
talking with Con-ui about drug trafficking
and even talking
00:19:02
about the murder of Garcia. SAM DOUGLAS: Recorded
conversations incriminated Con-ui being
involved in Garcia's murder.
00:19:10
They also suggested
he and other members were plotting more killings,
so police had to move
00:19:16
quickly to prevent them. VITO MARAVIGLIA: The police
set up some drug deals with the gang, where
Con-ui was involved
00:19:27
in picking up
the drugs and bringing them to another dealer. - However, he was picking
them up from undercover
00:19:34
police officers. They followed him, and then he
would deliver the narcotics, unfortunately for him,
to a different set
00:19:41
of undercover police officers. SAM DOUGLAS: Con-ui
was arrested. PAUL LOPEZ: Con-ui
faced conspiracy
00:19:52
federal narcotics charges
and was also arrested for the murder of Garcia. SAM DOUGLAS: Con-ui did not
admit to murdering Garcia,
00:20:02
but pled guilty
to the drugs charges. - Con-ui received
an 11-year sentence. He was sent to federal prison.
00:20:12
SAM DOUGLAS: In 2008,
Con-ui was four years into serving his
sentence for the drugs
00:20:18
offenses when his trial
for the murder of Carlos Garcia came around. Just before it started, he then
changed his plea to guilty.
00:20:28
- The only way he was going
to admit to the murder was they wanted to give
him the death penalty then,
00:20:34
but they offered him
25 years to life. And he agreed
to take that penalty and admitted at that time
he committed the murder.
00:20:43
SAM DOUGLAS: This meant
Con-ui could still be paroled with good
behavior, but he didn't seem
00:20:50
to pay much attention to that. - While Con-ui was serving time
in Victorville federal prison
00:21:05
in California, his cell was
searched by an officer, who subsequently found contraband.
00:21:12
Con-ui followed
the officer out of the cell and threatened him
at that point by saying,
00:21:17
be careful who you're
[bleep] with because you just might get hurt. After a disciplinary
hearing within the prison,
00:21:27
he was found guilty
of threatening another person. SAM DOUGLAS: Con-ui
was transferred
00:21:37
to Pollock state penitentiary. PAUL LOPEZ: While
Con-ui was serving time in Pollock in Louisiana,
he actually stabbed
00:21:45
an inmate with a shank. However, the inmate
survived that incident. SAM DOUGLAS: As a result,
Con-ui was moved again.
00:21:55
This time, he went
to the federal prison in Coleman, Florida. VITO MARAVIGLIA: I was working
at Coleman federal prison
00:22:05
at the time. I investigated crimes
in federal prisons. I also worked
on identifying gang
00:22:11
members and any kind
of problematic inmates that we might have. Con-ui, before he
went to the yard,
00:22:18
I actually interviewed him. And his attitude
during the interview was very disrespectful.
00:22:27
I remember thinking
about him, because he's got such a history, that
I felt he was dangerous
00:22:32
and that he would
kill somebody. SAM DOUGLAS: In Florida,
Con-ui had no fellow members
00:22:39
of the New Mexican
Mafia with him, but he was still an unsettling
presence in the prison.
00:22:45
VITO MARAVIGLIA: We had
a small group of Asian inmates, and he used to hang
around with them.
00:22:51
I don't even think the guys
around him liked him. I think they were
just afraid of him.
00:22:58
He's willing to kill
you because you looked at him the wrong way,
and you could see that in him.
00:23:03
He was feared. He was feared. He was not with us long,
maybe a couple of months,
00:23:09
and he got into trouble. He threatened an officer
at the prison where I was. LINA HAJI: Con-ui now
has a sense of bravado.
00:23:19
He's murdered
someone close to him. He's in prison. And now he thinks that
the rules don't apply to him.
00:23:26
VITO MARAVIGLIA: I
know the staff didn't like him because, you know, he
was just an all around bad guy.
00:23:31
You know, we felt that
he would carry out his threat with that officer. With his past history
of assaultive behavior,
00:23:38
I felt like that
should have been enough to transfer him to
the ADX, the lockdown prison.
00:23:45
But the Bureau of Prisons
didn't agree with me. SAM DOUGLAS: Con-ui wasn't sent
to the Super maximum security
00:23:52
prison in Florence, Colorado. Instead, he was transferred
to the high security prison Canaan penitentiary
in Pennsylvania.
00:24:02
- Con-ui was a ticking
time bomb in the prison. It just was a matter
of when he would go off
00:24:08
and where he would be. - So we're here overlooking
the United States penitentiary at Canaan.
00:24:16
This is just outside
of the small town of Waymart, and it houses a considerable
number of inmates
00:24:22
and employs quite a few
people here in the area, both as service
folks, but obviously
00:24:27
corrections officers as well. SAM DOUGLAS: Brian Sudul served
as a lieutenant correctional
00:24:36
officer at Canaan. - My job was pretty much
just to ensure everything during the day was completed,
overseeing officers
00:24:48
in the housing units, ensuring
their safety, safety of inmates alike. SAM DOUGLAS: Brian
didn't know much
00:24:54
about Con-ui when he arrived
at Canaan in October 2011. Today, Brian can barely bring
himself to speak his name.
00:25:03
- I never met the inmate
until he was placed in the special housing unit. He came down
the chute for being
00:25:12
drunk when he got sanctioned. That's normal. Inmates drink all the time. You get caught with
a little bit of hooch,
00:25:17
you go to the hole for a couple
of weeks, you come back out. This was his first
offense at Canaan.
00:25:20
He was cleared to go
back to the compound. SAM DOUGLAS: Con-ui kept
a much lower profile than he
00:25:33
had at his previous prisons. BRIAN SUDUL: This
guy was a nobody. He was a loner gang member on a
California Mexican Mafia yard.
00:25:45
He had-- he had no friends. [chuckles] They allowed
him to stay there. Well, I didn't know his prior
behavior in other institutions.
00:25:56
I didn't know about
his past behavior because I never looked
at it, because he never
00:25:59
caused me any kind of concern
or grief to where I did have to go and look
at his past behavior.
00:26:05
The problem is, is that
those quiet inmates, we don't really look into them. That's what you do
as a staff member.
00:26:11
You don't go messing
with the inmates that are doing their time. We want them to just
do their time.
00:26:21
SAM DOUGLAS: February
25, 2013, 34-year-old correctional officer,
Eric Williams,
00:26:28
arrived for his evening shift. He had been working at Canaan
for the last year and a half.
00:26:34
JIM HAMILL: What I know
about Eric Williams is that he was dedicated
to his community,
00:26:39
wanting to serve
in this capacity as a federal
corrections officer too. So he was very well liked by
those he worked with, but also
00:26:47
by so many in the community. BRIAN SUDUL: Eric
had a ton of friends. Eric and I are from
the same valley.
00:26:55
We did a lot
of the same activities. He was already prior
law enforcement. He was a police officer on
the street before he did this.
00:27:02
He was a hard worker. He was a really good officer. SAM DOUGLAS: Eric Williams
had a good reputation
00:27:09
amongst inmates as well and was
known to not have a problem with any particular prisoner.
00:27:16
VITO MARAVIGLIA: I think he had
done some prison ministry even before coming
to the Bureau of Prisons
00:27:21
and trying to help inmates, so
he was known to be a nice guy. BRIAN SUDUL: Eric was
very mild-mannered.
00:27:30
He wasn't quick to excite. Even when stuff was going
on, he was still even. That's what you want
in a correctional officer.
00:27:37
When he spoke
to inmates, very even. - Being a correctional
officer is such a horrifically stressful job.
00:27:45
We have to remember that
these individuals are choosing to risk their lives
every day, every time
00:27:51
they enter their workplace. That's not a normal
job for everybody else. But on top of that, correction
officers are verbally abused,
00:27:59
if not physically abused,
all day, all the time. It's extremely stressful. There's very little sunlight.
00:28:06
There's lack of windows. It's very loud. It smells horrific. You know that you're
dealing with individuals
00:28:12
who have done horrific things. So correction
officers actually tend to have a lot
of mental health issues
00:28:19
as a result, understandably so
when you consider that they are spending the majority
of their life in such
00:28:25
a toxic, stressful environment. SAM DOUGLAS: Eric Williams
and other correctional officers
00:28:38
had been searching cells
as part of a crackdown on inmate-made weapons. - We were having a lot
of contraband issues,
00:28:47
and the warden wanted
more searching, getting these weapons
off the compound. VITO MARAVIGLIA: Shanks
are a very large problem
00:28:57
in the prison systems basically
because they're easy to hide and they're easy to make.
00:29:03
And they're usually
filed-down pieces of metal. They're made to be sharp,
sometimes even hard plastic or
00:29:10
Plexiglass, any hard
substance that they can kind of file down to make a point. - They cut this material.
00:29:18
They rip metal off somewhere. They take it to a sidewalk. If you ever go on a recreation
yard, I would walk around,
00:29:24
and you'd see the lines
on the concrete from where they were
sharpened on them. Looked like somebody's
playing hopscotch.
00:29:35
It's the life we live. It's the danger. Everybody's got one. If you're not thinking
everybody's got one,
00:29:42
you're in the wrong place. SAM DOUGLAS: While correctional
officers finished up the search of cells
in other blocks,
00:29:51
Eric Williams was
by himself in C1 block where Con-ui's
cell was located. VITO MARAVIGLIA: Eric
Williams, at the time,
00:30:02
he was working alone
in general population, so the inmates were
free to move around.
00:30:06
At that time of the night,
they were getting ready to lock the inmates in their cells.
00:30:15
And he probably was going
up to the upper tier, walking up the stairs to start
locking the cell doors.
00:30:29
JIM HAMILL: For Jessie
Con-ui, this was premeditated, and he was laying
in wait to strike.
00:30:39
- That dude was waiting for him
at the top of the steps. Eric was knocked
down the stairs,
00:30:44
and Eric flew ass over
teakettle down the steps. And when Eric hit the bottom,
his radio came off,
00:30:49
and he had no communications
to me whatsoever. He had no way to call
me for help, nothing.
00:30:56
SAM DOUGLAS: Con-ui immediately
went after Eric Williams with two homemade knives.
00:31:04
JIM HAMILL: Eric Williams, it
was such a hopeless situation for him, taken by surprise.
00:31:09
He was overmatched by Jessie
Con-ui's physicality, attacking him, punching him,
kicking him, stabbing him.
00:31:19
- Stabbed him
hundreds of times, bashed his head off the floor
like he was a piece of meat.
00:31:24
SAM DOUGLAS: After his
continuous onslaught on Eric, Con-ui decided
to take a breather.
00:31:30
- Jessie Con-ui stopped, left
to get a drink of water and take a break, and then
return to the brutalization,
00:31:38
horrific display of evil
and violence on Mr. Williams. VITO MARAVIGLIA:
For him to walk off and
00:31:51
get a glass of water
and then come back and continue the assault
like he did, it shows a total
disregard for human life.
00:31:59
The officer was no
longer a threat to him. JIM HAMILL: It was 11 minutes
without any intervening
00:32:05
from those standing by. Those prisoners
didn't help, and they could have
potentially stepped in
00:32:11
to save Eric Williams' life. - There's a duress
button in their cells, but not one of them
pushed that button.
00:32:22
I was a unit over, not even
50 yards away from Eric being killed. SAM DOUGLAS: Eric
was just left there
00:32:30
until another officer
doing his rounds came across his
colleague unconscious. He immediately
radioed for help.
00:32:38
- [sighs] Well, we responded. That radio transmission-- I still can hear him
now screaming for help.
00:33:01
Found Eric unresponsive
in the middle of the floor, and he was beaten. His head trauma was
the worst thing I've
00:33:08
ever seen in my entire career. And my first thing was
to get him out of there. SAM DOUGLAS: Somehow,
Eric Williams
00:33:17
still had a faint pulse. As officers rushed Eric
to the medical unit, Brian saw that the prisoners
were currently in their cells,
00:33:25
but none of them were secured. He feared a potential
prison riot. BRIAN SUDUL: The doors
weren't locked yet.
00:33:32
The unit was still open. When I got in there,
I yelled, I'm going to kill one of you mother--
00:33:37
[bleep] You know,
I played it off like it was just to scare them,
but no, I really meant it.
00:33:43
I have 39 lives to protect. If you come out, you're
going to lose yours. We went around, and we
locked the doors.
00:33:51
I remember being
at Con-ui's cell and seeing him through
the door, and he kind of just
00:33:57
melted into the darkness as I
pushed up against the door, and they locked it. I didn't see him hurt.
00:34:03
I didn't see him nothing. I didn't see no weapons.
I didn't see no blood. I didn't see anything.
00:34:07
I was just concerned
with getting these doors locked to take danger away. Because once the danger is
away, I can calm it down.
00:34:15
SAM DOUGLAS: When he reached
the prison's trauma room, Eric Williams was
remarkably still alive,
00:34:21
but he succumbed to his grave
injuries and died soon after. FRANK MARCELL:
The sequence of events
00:34:28
that took place with
the murder of Officer Williams, I think it has to go down
as one of the more horrific,
00:34:34
violent killings that has
probably ever been recorded in a correctional setting.
00:34:40
LINA HAJI: This
attack was so brutal. It involved over 200 stabbings
being stomped in the face.
00:34:46
This was sadistic. This was torturous. Absolute hell
for this poor officer. I can't imagine what
he went through.
00:34:53
That really highlights
how dangerous Con-ui is. SAM DOUGLAS: Officers had no
idea who committed the crime
00:35:02
and searched the cell
block looking for inmates who
showed signs of having been in a frenzied struggle.
00:35:08
JIM HAMILL: They discovered
Jessie Con-ui with injuries to his hands, indicating
that he was the aggressor,
00:35:14
but he also was found
with a shank as well. - Inmate Con-ui, he admitted
to the officer that he
00:35:21
had attacked Officer Williams. BRIAN SUDUL: So I
got to the cell. Con-ui was standing there.
00:35:27
I can't believe
I said his name. I looked in the cell. There was a weapon in the sink,
and he had a weapon.
00:35:33
So I told him, throw
them in the sink and submit to restraints. And he goes, no.
00:35:38
He goes, I heard what you said
down there, that I was going to kill one of these mother--
00:35:41
[bleep] I said, listen,
man, it's all over now. There's cameras everywhere. You didn't come out
the cell to fight,
00:35:47
so it's professional
from here on out. He goes, you give me your word? I said, yep, I
give you my word.
00:35:53
So he submitted to restraints. SAM DOUGLAS: The officers took
Con-ui away from the block
00:35:58
to a special holding cell. BRIAN SUDUL: He starts
talking, and he says, I had to do what I
had to do because I
00:36:04
was tired of your people's
disrespect. I looked at him, and I
said, hey, I suggest
00:36:11
you choose to remain silent. VITO MARAVIGLIA: Whenever
you have an inmate that's
00:36:24
involved in something
like murdering an officer, they will move that
inmate right away
00:36:29
to another federal prison. The prison itself doesn't want
to get caught up in anything
00:36:33
where there's any
kind of retaliation, or the inmate can
say the officers are retaliating against me.
00:36:41
- Jessie Con-ui was
transferred from USP Canaan to the federal
corrections facility in Allenwood.
00:36:48
Not terribly far away, but it
is a maximum security prison, which in hindsight, seems like
the best place where he could
00:36:54
have been to prevent such
a heinous attack that occurred at Canaan. SAM DOUGLAS: News of the tragic
events at Canaan prison
00:37:03
broke out. JIM HAMILL: This really did end
up being wall-to-wall coverage. The community was certainly
plunged into shock and
00:37:12
disbelief that
something like this could happen
in the federal prison where a member
of the community had
00:37:17
gone in for a regular work
day and wasn't able to go home to their families. The horror, especially of how
heinous the attack was too.
00:37:30
BRIAN SUDUL: He
died doing his job. We all know that this
can come from this job.
00:37:36
You don't expect it. Then I had to look at Eric's
family in the face. [sobbing] Mr. and Mrs. Williams,
the sweetest people
00:37:47
you'll ever meet. They didn't deserve this. SAM DOUGLAS:
In the time following, Con-ui would claim
Eric Williams regularly
00:37:59
disrespected him
and ordered his cell to be shaken down without reason. - He says that
Eric targeted him.
00:38:08
OK, I sent that shakedown
crew around, not Eric. That's what you call
disrespect-- you're
00:38:13
pretty weak. You're a pretty weak man. LINA HAJI: The attack
was 11 minutes long.
00:38:20
It was extremely brutal. The disrespect is an excuse. It's the convenient prison
excuse because everyone
00:38:26
will understand it. It's a bravado excuse so that
other inmates will know you don't disrespect Con-ui.
00:38:33
But also, it appears
that Con-ui actually enjoyed the murder,
and disrespect was his way of making it
appear more acceptable.
00:38:50
SAM DOUGLAS: In April 2013,
a month after Eric Williams' murder, Con-ui was transferred
to America's highest
00:38:57
security prison, the federal
supermax in Florence, Colorado. VITO MARAVIGLIA: Inmates
like him wouldn't even
00:39:04
be housed with other inmates. The inmates that go there
are the most violent ones,
00:39:10
and they don't come
out of their cells unless they're restrained. And that's a big thing when
it comes to violent inmates,
00:39:18
because if they're restrained,
they can't hurt nobody. We say they earned it. SAM DOUGLAS: It wasn't
until four years later
00:39:28
that Con-ui stood trial for
the murder of Eric Williams. At the federal courthouse
in Scranton, Pennsylvania,
00:39:36
he was facing
the death penalty. JIM HAMILL: So the guilt phase
of the Jessie Con-ui trial
00:39:42
was over in just
a matter of days because there was no
defense, no witnesses were put on the stand,
and the jury
00:39:49
convicted him pretty clearly. However, the next phase took
quite a while, several weeks,
00:39:55
in fact, for the penalty phase,
where the defense attorneys tried to convince jurors
that there's a reason
00:40:01
to spare Jessie Con-ui's life. SAM DOUGLAS: Con-ui's attorneys
cited his difficult childhood,
00:40:07
and he made a statement
expressing remorse. - Con-ui, I think this is him
mimicking what an appropriate
00:40:14
human response would be. He wants the world
to view him as somebody who wishes he
could take it back,
00:40:20
but I don't think that's
actually the case here. I think at this
point he's really not
00:40:25
pleading for actual
mercy, and he's really not actually taking
responsibility for his actions.
00:40:31
He's pleading for his own fate. JIM HAMILL: During the penalty
phase of the trial,
00:40:37
prosecutors said to jurors
that if a picture is worth a thousand
words, then that video
00:40:43
of that vicious attack
on Eric Williams was worth a million words. It was pretty tense
inside the courtroom.
00:40:53
There were family
members, there were colleagues of Eric
Williams in there, and they were all
there with the hopes
00:40:59
that justice would be served
and that Jessie Con-ui would be then sentenced to death.
00:41:06
SAM DOUGLAS:
The jury was 11 to 1 in favor of the death
penalty, but it had to be a unanimous decision.
00:41:15
Jessie Con-ui had
escaped execution. He was sentenced to life
without the possibility
00:41:21
of parole. BRIAN SUDUL:
The Williams' family, their heart was cut out-- heart was cut out.
00:41:28
JIM HAMILL: Jessie
Con-ui was sentenced to life in prison, which he
had already been serving.
00:41:33
It was a lot of anger,
a lot of heartbreak for the family
members and the prison
00:41:38
colleagues of Eric Williams. They had fully expected
there was enough evidence there to convince the jury.
00:41:46
But because he would
face life in prison, it was as if nothing
had happened. Nothing resulted from
that loss of life.
00:41:56
SAM DOUGLAS: Determined
his death wouldn't be in vain, Eric
Williams parents fought for better
safety measures
00:42:02
for correctional officers. In 2016, President Barack
Obama signed into law the Eric Williams Correctional
Officer Protection Act
00:42:11
that allows corrections
officers to carry pepper spray. BRIAN SUDUL: A pair
of cuffs and radio--
00:42:16
Eric had nothing
to defend himself. Finally, officers
have pepper spray. When you get into a fistfight
with an inmate,
00:42:23
you have to understand you're
fighting for your life. SAM DOUGLAS: Since pepper
spray and more stab vests
00:42:28
have been introduced, injuries
to correctional officers have fallen. BRIAN SUDUL: We are always
going to be understaffed.
00:42:35
Now, in the penitentiaries,
they put two officers in the units at 24/7. They did do that.
00:42:42
That helped. That helps because there's
two guys in there now. You know, if it wasn't
for the Williams' family,
00:42:47
we'd probably
still be fighting. I just wish I could
have done more. I wish I could have
saved their kid.
00:43:04
SAM DOUGLAS: Double
murderer Jessie Con-ui is still incarcerated
in the Florence ADMAX prison.
00:43:10
FRANK MARCELL: It's
the most maximum security prison in the United States. I toured that prison, and it's
so secure it's unbelievable.
00:43:20
I think Con-ui is the only
member of the New Mexican Mafia that is housed
in Florence, Colorado.
00:43:27
I remember walking into a pod
or a prison system, and you could just sense
evil on different inmates.
00:43:35
Jessie Con-ui, he would have
been one of those inmates. - I'm sure his traumatic
childhood played a role in it,
00:43:42
but most humans with
traumatic childhoods don't go on to murder
two people. He had multiple opportunities
throughout his life
00:43:52
to change the course of his
path, and he chose otherwise. And the level of depravity--
00:43:59
Con-ui's actions
were extremely evil, and that tells me that he
likely too is an evil person.
00:44:08
VITO MARAVIGLIA: He had
no regard for human life. He came across that way
when you interviewed him.
00:44:14
He had no regard
for anything or anyone. BRIAN SUDUL: Once you kill,
you're a killer, that's it.
00:44:19
Whether it's staff or inmate,
you don't belong or ever walk in the compound again.
00:44:23
He should never walk
amongst living humans again. He should be left in his box
for the rest of his life.
00:44:29
He is one of the most
evil men I've ever met. [theme music]