By Mark Morey
Yakima Herald-Republic
YAKIMA, Wash. — An inmate who was fatally stabbed at the Yakima County jail went undiscovered for an extra hour because one of the murder suspects and others in the unit distracted a corrections officer, jail director Ed Campbell said Thursday.
But there’s nothing to indicate that jail staff could have prevented inmate Timothy Denton’s death, Campbell said in an interview.
“There is every indication that these officers did everything according to policy, did everything right, leading up to the incident,” Campbell said in his first statements on the second homicide in the jail’s 32-year history.
Denton, 27, of Yakima was found dead with multiple stab wounds in his fourth-floor cell on the morning of May 11, approximately two hours after the attack. He had been arrested the night before on charges from April that accused him of badly beating his ex-girlfriend, who had been named as the victim in several other criminal cases against Denton.
Campbell said the officer who later discovered Denton’s body was checking the unit’s upper tier, where Denton was housed by himself, about an hour after the attack.
That’s when several inmates on the lower tier started calling for the officer’s attention and talking to him, Campbell said in an interview at his office.
The officer was drawn in by the attempt and did not check Denton’s cell before continuing on his rounds.
The same officer discovered Denton’s body on his next check of the unit an hour later, Campbell said.
Corrections officers are expected to confirm that inmates are within their assigned units and alive during the regular checks.
Even without the delay in finding the body, it appears officers could not have prevented the death. Denton was dead before the attack ended, according to an autopsy.
Also, the two inmates charged with killing Denton — Erick Garcia Romero, 25, and Hilario Sosa, 19 — apparently timed the attack to maximize how long it would take for his body to be found by charging into his cell about 8:30 a.m., immediately after the pair of corrections officers passed on their rounds, according to surveillance video. The body was discovered about 10:30 a.m.
“This was something that appears to be planned, that these individuals prepared for,” Campbell said.
Campbell said the investigation suggests that the killing stemmed from an internal gang dispute involving Denton.
Campbell said all 14 inmates in the same unit as Denton had ties to the Norteño street gang.
But hours after her brother’s funeral on Thursday, Denton’s sister disputed that, saying she believed her brother had been affiliated with a Sureño gang.
His sister, Ashley Scribner, earlier had raised concerns about safety at the jail — including whether Denton had asked to be moved — but on Thursday she declined to respond in detail to the information provided by Campbell.
“We laid my brother to rest today, and it is what it is,” she said. “We’ll deal with it from here on out and just take it day by day.”
Both suspects in Denton’s death have been charged with first-degree murder. They have been placed in solitary custody, and the unit where Denton was held has been locked down in response to the slaying, Campbell said.
Inmates with a violent history and gang ties are held on the jail’s fourth floor, the closest equivalent to a prison’s maximum security unit.
Campbell said he will wait for completion of his agency’s internal investigation and a command staff review before settling on any actions regarding discipline, training or other matters. There is no date set to complete that investigation.
He said a jail suffers from many of the same crimes for which the suspects are serving time or awaiting trial.
“I don’t believe this one incident is an indication the jail is unsafe,” he said.
The jail houses about 700 inmates — 450 of them on local charges, most felonies. The rest are held under contract with other Washington cities or counties where they are being prosecuted.
Over the years, an increasing gang population — now 70 percent or so of the jail population — has created challenges for jail staff, who try to separate inmates based on gang background and other factors.
Contrary to reports from Denton’s family, Campbell said, he did not seem worried to be in the unit. He asked for his cell to be opened on the morning of his death, ate breakfast and spent time in the unit’s common area, Campbell said.
“At no time did he ever relay to anyone that he had any concerns for his safety or did not want to be housed in that unit,” he said.
While the jail has multiple surveillance cameras that look into housing units, they are not monitored full time, Campbell said. For privacy reasons, they do not look directly into cells.
None of the inmates activated emergency call buttons in their cells and the dayroom to alert officers to the attack on Denton, Campbell said.
Campbell declined to specifically describe the weapon believed to have been used in the stabbing, but he said inmates have hours on end to devise weapons from a variety of sources. Even though officers regularly search for weapons, it’s an ongoing fight against inmates, he said.
“They basically tear apart the facility and find things they can make weapons out of,” Campbell said.
And though the jail could benefit from architectural and security improvements, none of those likely would have prevented the attack on Denton, he said.
“This is a very difficult job. This is a very difficult environment,” he said.
“We don’t have the ability to put everyone in individual cells, and we can’t keep people in cells indefinitely,” he added.
Copyright 2016 Yakima Herald-Republic