Jury finds ex-prison guard guilty of manslaughter in 2020 inmate death; sentence pending

TAVARES – Former prison guard Michael Riley was guilty of manslaughter when he did a takedown on a prisoner at Lake Correctional Institution in 2020, a jury decided Wednesday.

The inmate, Chris Howell, refused to let corrections officers remove the handcuffs that were fastened behind his back, so Riley rushed into his narrow cell and put him in an “arm bar,” which caused his head to hit the wall.

“Who does that?” Assistant State Attorney Nick Camuccio asked during his closing argument Wednesday. He sought a guilty verdict for a charge of second-degree murder.

The proper procedure was simply to close the door, he said. The alternative was to hook a tether to the handcuffs so they could pull him back and remove the handcuffs.

“It was a terrible accident,” defense attorney Martin White insisted. Corrections officers are allowed to use force, he said.

Riley, accompanied by two other guards, had been moving Howell from one cell to another. Once in his cell, he pulled so hard it yanked him inside, Riley wrote in his use-of-force report.

But “this was not a stumble,” said Cammucio. An assistant medical examiner testified that when Howell’s head hit the wall, breaking his neck, it was equivalent to a car crash where the victim is ejected from the vehicle.

The other officers who were helping Riley, Jose Valentin and Kevin Gonzalez, “basically copied” Riley’s report, Valentin testified.

The statements, which were too similar, was one of the first things that aroused the suspicions of Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigators.

The two corrections officers later changed their stories when confronted by investigators.

Howell wasn’t pulling hard, they said. He was barely bent forward.

“I didn’t have my hand on the tether,” Gonzalez said.

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Camuccio described Riley as a “hot head” who tormented Howell the day before by pulling back his food tray in the slot of his cell door.

“I’ve got something for you,” Riley threatened, when Howell finally snatched the tray. Riley repeated his threat when Howell refused to allow officers to remove his handcuffs.

Riley rushed in and performed what is called a shoulder or arm-bar takedown. Valentin demonstrated the technique to the six-member jury, with Camuccio playing the role of Howell. By placing one hand on the shoulder, it is easy to push someone to the floor.

The guards pointed to a photograph of the 9.5-foot-by 7-foot cell where Howell’s head hit the rear wall, leaving a bloody spot.

White asked the correction officers if they had been intimidated or threatened by FDLE agents into changing their stories. They said no, but White continued with his questioning.

“Didn’t he say you need to think about your career, and your family?” White asked Valentin.

Valentin agreed that one of the FDLE agents had asked that question, as well as asking if he was aware that he could be charged as an accessory to the crime.

Both Valentin and Gonzalez were fired.

Circuit Judge James Baxley ordered a presentence investigation. Manslaughter is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Howell was imprisoned in 2019 on a four-year sentence for armed robbery. He was mentally ill, suffering from a personality disorder.

There had been trouble at the Clermont prison before. In July 2019, four officers were arrested and fired after a cellphone video reportedly surfaced showed them beating a prisoner.

In April 2020, two officers were accused of beating an inmate for allegedly smuggling contraband into the prison. The prisoner suffered a collapsed lung and broken ribs. They were arrested and charged with aggravated battery with great physical harm.

Last year, FDLE arrested four correctional officers at Dade Correctional Institution and charged them with murder in the beating death of a handcuffed inmate that was being transferred to LCI.

The prisoner, who was in a mental health ward, threw urine at the guards, according to an FDLE press release. The officers beat him and put him in the back of a van. When they stopped in Ocala to check on him, they found him lying dead on a bench.

This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: Jury: Former prison guard guilty of manslaughter in inmate death