Warden, former corrections chief testify in Angola slaying trial
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ST. FRANCISVILLE — Angola prison Warden Burl Cain and former state corrections chief Richard Stalder testified today that they neither ordered nor saw any inmates beaten after a 1999 hostage-taking that led to the death of security Capt. David C. Knapps.
Stalder said he left the Camp D educational building, where Knapps was slain, shortly after the prison’s tactical team rescued two other officers held hostage at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola..
Stalder, who at the time was secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections, said he went to the camp’s control center to call then-Gov. Mike Foster before heading several miles away to another area of the prison.
Cain described how the hostage situation was resolved, including ordering the tactical team to rescue a sergeant held at knifepoint in a small room. Team members shot and killed inmate Joel Durham, 26, and wounded inmate David Mathis.
The state is seeking the death penalty in the first-degree murder cases against Mathis, 31; Robert G. Carley, 40; Jeffrey Cameron Clark, 47; Barry S. Edge, 47; and David Brown, 35.
Twentieth Judicial District Judge George H. Ware Jr. is hearing testimony this week on a motion to throw out statements made by the five defendants and other inmates during the investigation.
Defense attorneys claim the statements were made after beatings and other forms of duress and should not be used against the five inmates indicted in the case.
Inmates testifying over three days described being beaten while they were handcuffed in various rooms and the building’s hall, as they walked to and from a bus that transferred them to another camp for the night, while on the bus and inside the other camp.
Doug Durrette, who was assistant warden in charge of Camp D, denied seeing any officer strike an inmate and denied hitting any prisoner himself. His testimony contradicted an inmate who said Durrette slapped him in the face.
Cain said he left the camp shortly after the tactical team regained control. He said he told subordinates to “do the right thing” in handling the investigation that followed, and believed they would.
“We are trained not to abuse inmates,” Cain said.
The hearing is scheduled to continue Friday and possibly run through the weekend.
