SACRAMENTO — Months after he was convicted of ordering murders all through the California jail system, an imprisoned chief of the Aryan Brotherhood jail gang allegedly attacked two corrections officers who had been escorting him again to his cell.
The incident got here two months after a special corrections officer injured Yandell throughout a transport, allegedly knocking him down and placing him whereas he was handcuffed. Yandell had filed a lawsuit alleging jail and federal authorities retaliated towards him for political advocacy work simply days earlier than he was injured.
Yandell, a former West Contra Costa resident, has not been charged in reference to the Nov. 22 incident, nevertheless it was being handled as a double tried homicide, authorities mentioned. Jail officers say they plan to ship the case to the Sacramento County District Lawyer’s workplace.
Yandell is at the moment awaiting sentencing in a federal racketeering case, the place he was convicted of conspiracies to commit homicide, smuggle medication and different contraband in jail and serving as a pacesetter of the infamous jail gang. Many of the convictions centered on a wiretap of Yandell’s contraband cellphone within the late 2010s, led by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Tensions have been brewing within the Sacramento jail the place Yandell and his co-defendants are housed. Considered one of his co-defendants, Brant Daniel, lately accused jail employees of making an attempt to set him as much as be killed by a deliberate switch to a jail in Corcoran. One other of Yandell’s co-defendants, Danny Troxell, traded loss of life threats with him throughout their trial final March, earlier than each males had been convicted.
Yandell can also be identified for political advocacy work, having helped organized a peace treaty between rival jail gangs and serving as a pacesetter of a prison-wide starvation strike within the early 2010s. The strike helped cut back the rampant use of solitary confinement. He has accused legislation enforcement of retaliating towards him by bringing on the racketeering case, although a federal choose lately denied a movement to throw out the convictions primarily based on these grounds.
If Yandell is charged in Sacramento court docket, it’s unlikely to have a lot impact on his life trajectory. He’s already serving a life sentence for homicide and manslaughter convictions in Contra Costa, and faces a life sentence within the federal case.
The incident is the third little bit of violence being handled as an tried homicide of a jail staffer in California to this point this month. All three incidents occurred at totally different prisons and don’t seem like associated.
Initially Printed: November 26, 2024 at 1:24 PM PST
