Judge orders feds to turn over any evidence that California prison guard conspired to have Aryan Brotherhood member ‘threatened, assaulted, or killed’
Judge orders feds to turn over any evidence that California prison guard conspired to have Aryan Brotherhood member ‘threatened, assaulted, or killed’
Nate Gartrell
PUBLISHED: July 6, 2021 at 2:38 p.m. | UPDATED: July 8, 2021 at 5:23 p.m.
Categories:California News, Crime and Public Safety, Latest Headlines, Local News, News
SACRAMENTO — In a partial victory for the defense team for an accused Aryan Brotherhood killer, a federal judge has ordered the U.S. Department of Justice to turn over any evidence of a prison guard conspiring to have the man “threatened, assaulted, or killed.”
In a July 2 order, U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller partially granted a motion by the attorneys for Aryan Brotherhood member Brant “Two Scoops” Daniel, 46. The notorious gang member’s lawyers had requested documents related to allegations that a corrections officer plotted to kill Daniel, as well as attorneys’ contention that authorities framed Daniel with accusations that he was planning to stab an officer to death. Since 2019, Daniel has been incarcerated in California State Prison, Sacramento, where he faces federal charges alongside two dozen other alleged gang members and associates charged in four cases.
Mueller fully granted two defense requests, partially granted three others, and rejected nine. Her order says federal prosecutors must turn over any evidence that a prison guard “may have threatened Daniel, passed on confidential information or documents (including his wife’s letters) about Mr. Daniel or his case, or otherwise may have sought or conspired to have Daniel threatened, assaulted, or killed,” or that staff solicited other inmates to murder Daniel.
THE INMATES THE FEDERAL PROSECUTORS TRIED TO SILENCE
THE INMATES THE FEDERAL PROSECUTORS TRIED TO SILENCE
Mueller also ordered prosecutors to turn over evidence that the guard Daniel is accused of plotting to kill was allowed to work on the same module as Daniel after the alleged plot was discovered, which defense attorneys argued proves the government didn’t take the alleged plot seriously. Daniel’s defense team has alleged they have a confidential informant who can speak to the plot to kill Daniel and other state prisoners.
Mueller declined a defense request to turn over any evidence related to the existence of a vigilante “Green Wall” prison gang comprising corrections officers and prison staff, as well as any evidence that guards were complicit in the December 12, 2019 killing of inmate Luis Giovanny Aguilar at the Sacramento prison. She wrote that Daniel’s attorneys failed to meet the legal burden for the former requests, and that the latter motion was “based on speculation.”
Since federal prosecutors secured an indictment against Daniel and numerous other Aryan Brotherhood members — including two of the prison gang’s three-man leadership council — the defendants have in turn accused federal and state authorities of repressing their rights, with some success. Daniel’s defense team helped expose an FBI investigation into alleged corruption at the Sacramento prison, and one of Daniel’s co-defendants, Patrick “Big Pat” Brady, filed civil court papers revealing that Sacramento Sheriff’s officials “accidentally” recorded confidential legal visits at the jail for a weeks-long period last year.
Most of the defendants are being housed at the Sacramento jail, which they maintain is ill-equipped to allow confidential visits with their attorneys. Daniel and Mexican Mafia member Michael “Mosca” Torres remain in the Sacramento prison. Last year, prison staff transferred Daniel to a psychiatric unit for security reasons, they say, after they alleged plot to murder a guard was uncovered.
Daniel is accused of murdering 36-year-old Zachary Scott in Salinas Valley State Prison, a stabbing he allegedly carried out in front of guards, admitted to, and pleaded guilty to in state court, according to court records. It is one of five killings prosecutors list as having been carried out to benefit the Aryan Brotherhood, along with four other thwarted murder plots .
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