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| Death row inmate attacks officer |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 08/19/2004 |
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A death row inmate being escorted to his cell turned around suddenly and stabbed a prison officer 13 times with a sharpened metal rod, but the wounds were not considered serious, a prison spokeswoman said Wednesday. The inmate, Jorge Salinas, was sentenced to lethal injection for the 2001 deaths of a 29-year-old man and a 21-month-old girl during a carjacking in Hidalgo County (Texas). "His cell had just been searched and he was irate," Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said. She said Salinas used a rod from a typewriter that he was allowed to use. As two officers escorted Salinas on Monday night, he began swinging his hand at one of the officers, Lyons said. As the officer blocked the blow, Salinas produced the 6 1/2-inch rod and began stabbing the 24-year-old correctional officer, Lyons said. Other officers subdued Salinas using a chemical agent, she said. The officer was taken from the prison unit in Livingston to the Polk County Hospital, where his puncture wounds were cleansed. Lyons said he is doing fine. The inmate was not injured during the scuffle and has been placed in a higher level of custody. He also has lost his privileges to use items such as a typewriter and radios, Lyons said. The search of Salinas' cell was routine, Lyons said, adding that officers search all inmates cells to "make sure they do not possess contraband, including weapons." Lyons said the attack was being investigated. "When you are talking about a death row inmate, there is not much you can do," she said. "You really cannot stack anything more on that sentence. It will be reflected on his record and that will be something that stays with him." Convicted killers sent to Texas' death row spend 23 hours a day alone in a concrete wall cell with one hour for recreation. There are 456 offenders awaiting execution. Salinas, 20, arrived on Texas' death row in 2002. He was convicted in the slaying of Geronimo Morales, who was carjacked on his way to a quinceanera, driven to an isolated orchard and fatally shot in the head with a shotgun. His daughter, Leslie Ann, was abandoned that same night and died. Border Patrol agents found the girl dead in her car seat at a park near the Rio Grande. Agents said she was strapped in the seat and hidden in some brush. |
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