© ReutersBrian Coll
A federal jury delivered a guilty-on-all-counts verdict Thursday against a former corrections officer who kicked an inmate at Rikers Island to death.
Ronald Spear died on Dec. 19, 2012, in the infirmary at Rikers Island where he had sought treatment for his late-stage renal and kidney disease.
Growing frustrated with his denial of care, Spear got into a heated altercation with corrections officer Brian Coll. It is undisputed that Spear started the fight, but also that the inmate was sickly and walked with a cane.
Prosecutors say other Rikers guards had already de-escalated the situation - holding Spear face-down on the ground with his hands behind his back - when Coll started kicking the inmate in the face repeatedly.Just before the inmate died, Coll allegedly pulled up Spear's head to deliver a chilling warning.
"That's what you get for fucking with me," Coll has been quoted as saying. "
Remember that I'm the one who did this to you."
In connection to Thursday's verdict, the 42-year-old Coll could spend the rest of his life in prison.
At
summations Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brooke Cucinella told the court that, for years after the jailhouse killing, Coll kept a
Village Voice newspaper article with a picture of his victim framed in his bedroom.
Comment: Taking their cue from the CIA, police around the country are profiting handsomely from the war on drugs. Where is a more convenient place to run drug-trafficking operations than from within corrupt US police departments?