By Andy Hoffman
The Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa
BURLINGTON, Iowa — Two men entered guilty pleas in separate hearings Monday in Des Moines County District Court for attacking two correctional officers last December at the county jail.
Earl Booth-Harris, 25, and Bobby Joe Morris, 27, entered pleas to willful injury causing serious injury, a class C felony, which carries a 10-year sentence, and assault on a correctional officer, an aggravated misdemeanor, punishable by up to two years in prison.
A third defendant, Jorge Sanders-Galvez, 23, is expected to enter a guilty plea to the same charges during a hearing next Tuesday in Des Moines County District Court. He is serving a mandatory life sentence in the killing of Kedarie Johnson, a 16-year-old Burlington High School student, who was killed in March 2016.
Booth-Harris and Morris will be sentenced Tuesday on the jail attack. It is likely Sanders-Galvez also will be sentenced Tuesday following his guilty plea.
Morris will be sentenced as an “aider and abettor” to the beating for blocking an entrance to the cell in an attempt to prevent other jailers from stopping the attack. He did not directly participate in the beatings, authorities said.
Booth-Harris’ guilty plea was accepted by Senior District Judge Bill Dowell. District Judge Michael Schilling presided over Morris’ plea hearing.
In exchange for the men’s guilty pleas, Andy Prosser, an assistant Iowa attorney general who is prosecuting all three men, indicated to the judges Monday that an attempted murder charge would be dismissed.
However, the plea agreement also calls for the men’s two convictions on the jail attack to run consecutive to each other and consecutive to other recent convictions the men have incurred, which include a mandatory life sentence for Booth-Harris for the February 2015 killing of Deonte “Tae Tae” Carter during a daylight brawl at South Hill Park in Burlington.
Morris already is serving 25 years for a series of home invasion robberies involving Hispanics who were working at the Iowa Fertilizer Co. plant in Wever during its construction.
Although Morris can become eligible for parole after serving 10 years on that conviction, authorities said the new sentence relating to the assault on the corrections officers will be run consecutive to the armed robbery convictions, giving him a much longer prison term than 10 years.
Regardless of what sentences Booth-Harris or Sanders-Galvez receive in the jail attack, it will not matter because they are already serving mandatory life sentences without the opportunity for parole relating to their murder convictions.
One corrections officer was severely beaten by the inmates and a second female officer also was injured when she came to the aid of her co-worker. The male deputy entered the maximum area of the jail where the men were located after he caught them making “hooch” in one of the men’s cells.
At one point during the attack, another officer, armed with a Taser, was able to enter the unit. At that point, the attack ended and the three inmates returned to their cells.
“The three inmates then begin to clap their hands, dance and hand slap (each other) in celebration of the attack,” according to documents unsealed in district court.
According to court records, the injured officer regained consciousness and was able to leave the cell under his own power. However, he immediately collapsed onto the floor outside the unit.
During a subsequent interview with investigators, the injured officer told them he “believed during the attack that Sanders-Galvez and Booth-Harris intended to kill him.”
The male correctional officer continues to recover from his injuries and is currently not working at the jail. The female officer is still on staff, authorities said Monday.
©2018 The Hawk Eye (Burlington, Iowa)