BOISE, Idaho -- A convict killed during a rampage by drunken prison inmates said just two days earlier he had been targeted for death because he cooperated with prosecutors in a drug-murder investigation, his lawyer said Monday.
Richard Holmes, 35, apparently was slain by other prisoners Sunday during a four-hour riot, which Idaho State Penitentiary guards and police quelled about 7 p.m. after inmates in a 76-person maximum security unit set fires, broke windows and caused other damage.
Police declined to say how Holmes was killed and an autopsy was underway.
Officials confirmed they were investigating whether Holmes was killed for cooperating with prosecutors but declined to say if they thought the riot was staged as part of a plan to murder Holmes.
Holmes, of Nampa, Idaho, was serving a sentence for kidnapping and still faced a charge of aiding and abetting first-degree murder in the death of Nampa police drug informant Denise Williams.
Holmes' attorney, Rolf Kehne, blamed the death of Holmes on Owyhee and Canyon County authorities, who are jointly prosecuting the Williams case. Kehne said authorities sealed Holmes' fate by publicly revealing his client's cooperation.
'I'm absolutely convinced he was killed because the prosecutors, contrary to the promise they made, went public with the fact that Richard Holmes helped them,' Kehne said.
Kehne said Holmes told him his life was in danger during an hour-long meeting Friday at the prison, where he said Holmes showed him newspaper clippings shoved into his cell by inmates.
'He called it his 'love mail,'' Kehne said.
Prosecutor Richard Harris in Canyon County, where Nampa is located, blamed the blunder on Owyhee County Prosecutor Lawrence Wasden for leaving sensitive information in the court file, where it was discovered and reported by the news media. Wasden said he was not responsible and indicated Harris and Kehne may be to blame for failing to ask a court to seal the file.
'Both Holmes and Kehne knew the risks involved and accepted those risks,' Wasden said of Holmes' cooperation.
Idaho Corrections Director Al Murphy said officials were still tallying the damage to the unit, which was not being used Monday because of fire damage.
'It all started with several inmates drunk on homemade squakee, prison liquor,' he said.
Murphy said the two officers on duty tried to remove two drunken inmates 'and several others started a disturbance that spread rapidly.' It was unclear exactly how many prisoners participated.
'There was some glass breaking, people throwing stuff, making threats ... and the officers left the cellhouse,' Murphy said. 'We went in about two hours later to retrieve the building. We sent in 65 to 70 armed officers. We did not use force, but we would have if we had needed to.'
Murphy said 20 of the inmates were sent to a Boise jail and the rest were sent elsewhere in the 650-inmate prison. Some of the inmates now face criminal o r disciplinary charges.
Liquor is easy to make behind bars 'because anything you can find in a kitchen can make alcohol as long as you've got sugar,' Murphy said.
