(photo credit White Pine County Sheriff’s Office)
An ex-inmate from the Ely state prison released previously, Francis Moreno, has been now arrested, August 2nd, 2018.
On April 13, 2017, the criminal investigator with the Nevada Department of Corrections office, Cameron Horsley, assigned to the Ely State Prison, was briefed by the prison staff about an incident that occurred the previous evening, on a certain unit. So looking at the video of the incident, he saw that at about 7:00 p.m., the doors of that unit opened. Then he could see that two inmates, Gerardo Garcia and Ramon Iniguez walked out of their cell and approached several other inmates in front of other cells, who greeted them. While being greeted an other inmate, Vinny Hill, approached the group and removed something from his waist. The investigator could see on the video that Hill walked past Iniguez and attacked Garcia, stabbing him in the head and the neck. An other inmate Francisco Moreno, join in the attack on G. Garcia, and stabbed him. Garcia fell backwards on the floor and appeared unconscious. Hill and Moreno continued their attack on Garcia, after he fell to the floor.
As Hill and Moreno attacked Garcia , three other inmates, Mitereo Ramirez, Jamie Garcia and Jacob Stephens, attacked Iniguez. Stephens striked Iniguez with a plastic mug and his fist, targeting Iniguez’z face and head. J. Garcia and Ramirez attacked Iniguez from the sides, stabbing him with underhand motions in his chest and back.
The investigator could see on the video that both J. Garcia and Ramirez possessed some sort of weapon in their hands. And as Iniguez fell to the ground, Stephens, Ramirez and J. Garcia retreated to hide from the staff.
Ramirez retreating, went down on the floor in front of some cells, were he slide his weapon in one of them. J. Garcia also slide away from the attack on his belly, and also hide his weapon. After attacking G. Garcia, Hill and Moreno ran towards two other cells, still holding their weapons. The investigator couldn’t see what they did with them.
Staff later recovered two weapons near the attack on Iniguez. They also recovered bloody clothing, clothing worn by inmates Stephens and Hill. They also recovered an other weapon under some stairs, near the attacks.
As a result of this investigation, on February 27th, 2018, the investigator Cameron Horsley believed that probable cause exists that Francis Moreno committed the “crimes of Battery by an inmate with a deadly weapon causing substantial bodily harm, a felony and possession of a dangerous weapon by an incarcerated person”. Bail is at $50,000.
