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CO’s badge deflects knife attack by inmate

The inmate, once deemed the “most dangerous in Rhode Island,” is already serving a life sentence for stabbing a CO to death in 1973

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John Carillo, 79, faces several charges, including assaulting a correctional officer.

Photo/Rhode Island DOC

By Corrections1 Staff

WARWICK, R.I. — A Rhode Island inmate who was convicted for stabbing a CO to death in 1973 faces charges on stabbing another.

On Tuesday, inmate John Carillo, 79, faced a judge on charges of stabbing a correctional officer in the chest with a handmade metal blade, the Providence Journal reports. Carillo has been previously sentenced to life for stabbing Officer Donald Price to death 45 years ago in the Adult Correctional Institutions.

On Friday, corrections Inspector Frank J. Levesque said inmates were coming in from the yard when Carillo, without warning, drew a 6-inch blade from his pants and lunged toward Officer Jason Messier. Levesque said Messier deflected Carillo after the blade hit the officer’s badge.

Carillo pursued Messier before the officer and another CO, Jason Korus, used pepper spray to subdue the inmate. Levesque said state police are investigating the incident and looking at how Carillo got the blade.

Levesque said Messier has returned to work but is “very shaken up and upset.”

Carillo, who was once deemed as the most dangerous inmate in Rhode Island, was escorted to the courtroom for the arraignment Tuesday and listened to the state police describe the allegations against him. Judge Mary McCaffrey ordered Carillo to be held on $50,000 surety bail.

The inmate faces several charges, including assaulting a correctional officer.