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| Former Corrections Officers Enter Plea |
| By WBAL Channel 11 News |
| Published: 10/10/2005 |
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Three former Maryland correctional officers pleaded not guilty last week to second-degree murder of an inmate who was beaten to death in his cell early this year at a troubled state-run facility. Dameon Christopher Woods, 33, Nathan Delmont Colbert, 42 and James Leonard Hatcher, 43, were indicted in August for second-degree murder, first and second-degree assault and conspiracy to commit first and second-degree assault in the beating death of Raymond K. Smoot, 51. Smoot was being held on a theft charge at Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center. Smoot was in custody in his cell May 14 when he got into an altercation with correctional officers. Authorities have not said what caused the altercation. Smoot had a history of disciplinary problems at the facility, jail officials have said. He died at a Baltimore hospital on the night of the beating. Investigators interviewed more than 50 witnesses in the case. The suspects face up to 30 years in prison. The three suspects were among eight correctional officers who were fired at the state-run facility in June after Smoot's death. The FBI opened a separate civil rights investigation into Smoot's death. Judge Lynn Stewart set the trial date for Feb. 6. Central Booking is where arrested adults in Baltimore are identified, fingerprinted and photographed before they have a hearing before a court commissioner. The facility, which opened in 1995, was designed to process up to 45,000 people annually. The state-run jail has been widely criticized for overcrowded and unhealthy conditions, including a suit by the state public defender's office. In the lawsuit filed in April, the public defender's office claimed that scores of arrestees were not being presented before a court commissioner within 24 hours at Central Booking. |
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