Three-count indictment accuses prison in murder

RAYMONDVILLE - A Willacy County grand jury last week indicted a Florida private prison company on a murder charge in the 2001 death of a prisoner days before his release from a Raymondville prison, District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra said Monday.

A three-count indictment accuses The GEO Group of allowing other inmates to beat Gregorio de la Rosa Jr., 33, of Laredo to death with padlocks stuffed into socks, Guerra said.

"To charge a company with murder, it's got to be a very egregious situation," Guerra said. "By cutting staff or guards not being trained well, people are getting killed."

Inmates killed de la Rosa, who was serving a six-month sentence for drug possession, on the prison grounds just four days before his scheduled release in April 2001.

In 2006, a jury ordered the company pay de la Rosa's family $47.5 million in a civil judgment described as the largest jury award in Willacy County history.

A jury handed down the verdict against Wackenhut Corrections Corp., accused of negligence in de la Rosa's death.

Ron Rodriguez, the attorney who represents de la Rosa's family, argued that inadequate inmate searches and short staffing led to the April 26, 2001 beating.

The GEO Group was formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections Corp.

The GEO Group did not respond to a message requesting comment Monday afternoon.

In 2001, prisoners Daniel Sanchez of Mathis and Pedro de Jesus Equia of Brownsville were indicted on murder charges in De La Rosa's death.

They were sentenced to 20-year prison sentences after pleading guilty to lesser charges, Guerra said in an earlier interview.