One of the five inmates slain by fellow prisoners during a four-hour prison riot was a key witness in next week's trial against two other inmates charged with killing a man during a prison baseball game.
Corrections officials on Monday declined to speculate if the motive of the riot in the maximum-security unit in Deer Lodge was revenge."We don't know if this was a planned conspiracy to get at these (informants)," Corrections Director Curt Chisholm said.
Eight inmates were injured, including four in protective custody.
Meanwhile, an official involved in the investigation told The Associated Press how officials believe inmates took control of the unit. Chisholm would neither confirm nor deny the information.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said approximately nine inmates got into the cellblock from a recreation yard by breaking through a fence. They gained access to one control room by setting fires that melted bullet-proof plastic glass and also got into the second control room.
One of the five killed Sunday, Edmund W. Davison, 33, was set to testify Monday against two inmates accused of fatally beating another prisoner with a baseball bat in September, said Powell County Attorney Chris Miller.
The case against inmates Douglas Turner and William Gollehon likely would continue without Davison's testimony, Miller said.