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UTAH STATE PRISON — The family of a Utah prison inmate whose cellmate beat him to death on their second day together last year has sued the state Department of Corrections.
The wrongful death lawsuit claims the prison was negligent when it housed Julio Guerrero, 23, with convicted killer Mario Alfonso Lucero, 34, in a cell with a broken security button.
Prisoners known as "Knuckles" and "Foolish" who occupied the cell before Guerrero and Lucero told the prison the button didn't work two months earlier but the prison failed to fix it, according to the suit filed in U.S. District Court this week. Cells have security buttons for inmates to push if they fear for their safety or need medical care.
"When the prison discovered Mr. Guerrero in his cell he was laying dead on his back, Mr. Lucero was bending down on his knees with his hand on his head, and there was blood everywhere in the cell, including blood all over Mr. Lucero, Mr. Guerrero, the sink, toilet, and bloody hand marks on the security button in the cell," the lawsuit says.
The Utah State Medical Examiner's Office determined the cause of death was asphyxiation due to blunt force trauma to Guerrero's neck.
Guerrero, known in prison as "Tweety" due to his small stature and weight, was incarcerated for robbery, according to the lawsuit. Lucero was known as "Temper" because he would easily become angered.
Lucero admitted to the February 2015 killing and pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter last fall. Third District Judge Mark Kouris sentenced Lucero to one to 15 years in prison for the killing, but ordered that the term run concurrent with his 15-years-to-life sentence he was already serving for a 2014 murder conviction.
The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount for general and punitive damages.
