Jurors walk in doomed inmate's footsteps

The trial of four former guards moves to Florida State Prison for a 90-minute tour to give the jury a look at how Frank Valdes lived and where he died.

By THOMAS C. TOBIN
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 26, 2002

STARKE -- No proponent of tough prisons need worry about conditions on "Q-wing," the darkest corner of Florida's most notorious prison.

During a dreary morning rain Friday, the smooth concrete walls and floors inside Florida State Prison are moist with humidity. The beds are concrete or stainless steel, covered by a thin vinyl pad. The living space is a 6- by 9-foot cell with a stainless steel toilet and sink.

A guard controls the light switch and decides whether the thick cell steel door is open or closed. A guard escorts the inmate every other day to a shower behind iron bars.

There are no air conditioners, only giant fans near the guard stations.

It is here where Circuit Judge Larry G. Turner briefly reconvened the second-degree murder trial of four former prison guards accused in the 1999 beating death of inmate Frank Valdes. Q Wing, then known as X Wing, was the joyless highlight of that event -- a 90-minute tour to give six jurors and five alternate jurors a better idea of the unique geography of a case that offers a rare glimpse into the day-to-day workings of Florida's corrections system.

"This is an unusual thing -- an extraordinary thing," Turner told the jurors, who were accompanied by two bailiffs, eight lawyers, the four accused former guards, a group of 14 journalists and a cadre of stone-faced corrections officials.

The prison was placed in "lock down" so that the visitors would have no contact with inmates.

"This is evidence in this case," the judge reminded them. "You'll be in a group with me, and I'll be your guide."

Turner led the group past many of the scenes in a legal drama that, until Friday, had been set in a drab courtroom 9 miles down the road at the Bradford County Courthouse.

One of the first stops: the emergency room in the prison clinic where guards twice took Valdes -- the first time after a morning beating on July 17, 1999, in cell 1203 on X Wing. The second time was that afternoon, after Valdes was found dead in his cell.

Other scenes included the "dress out" room, where the guards donned helmets, flak jackets and other gear that morning so that they could "extract" Valdes from his cell because he had threatened an officer. It is also where some of them are accused of talking about beating him.

Turner then steered jurors to a conference room where several guards are accused of gathering after the morning beating to falsify their reports.

The visit to X Wing came last, at the end of a quarter-mile corridor that forms the spine of the prison. Reserved for the most incorrigible of Florida's inmates, the wing is muggier than the rest of the prison, with a low ceiling and a staircase leading down to the state's death chamber.

Turner escorted the jurors into cell 1203, once the spartan home of Valdes, who was on death row for killing a corrections officer.

"I'm going to take you in the cell a few at a time," the judge said. "If you're claustrophobic and don't want to go in, that's okay."

The cell is one of six along a dank, cramped hallway. One juror, a 68-year-old retired clerk, fanned herself to keep cool.

Turner made sure the jurors saw the quarter-inch slit under the cell door that might later be mentioned when inmates are called to testify that they communicated with Valdes and heard his beating.

On the other side of X Wing is another hallway with six more cells, where prosecutors say guards administered more beatings and killed Valdes. It happened, they allege, in cell 2202. The defendants say another guard who will stand trial later is the one who may have beaten Valdes to death. They also say Valdes might have died from flinging himself around his cell.

Medical experts have testified that Valdes appeared to have been stomped to death.

The guards on trial are Capt. Timothy A. Thornton, Sgt. Charles A. Brown, Sgt. Jason P. Griffis and Sgt. Andrew W. Lewis. They also are charged with conspiring to batter Valdes, felony battery on an inmate and official misconduct.

Before leaving X Wing on Friday, the jurors saw "pipe alley," a web of vents and plumbing behind the cells through which inmates often communicate. Some inmates say this is how they heard what was happening to Valdes.

Turner led the group back down the main corridor, a great beige hallway with a succession of 20-foot-tall iron gates.

"At this point," he said, "we're just going to get out of here as fast as these folks will allow us."

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