UTAH STATE PRISON — An inmate already serving a sentence of life without parole for killing two people at an Ogden wedding party now faces charges of stabbing another inmate at least 30 times.
Riqo Mariano Perea, 28, was charged along with Elmer Jimmy Maes, 31, Justin Daniel Lovato, 39, and Reynoldo Thomas Martinez, 27, on Thursday in 3rd District Court with aggravated assault, a first-degree felony. A fifth inmate, Justin Paul Craft, 26, was charged with obstruction of justice.
According to charging documents, inmate Roberto Duran was stabbed 30 times in his torso, back and neck on July 27 in what was believed to be a gang-related incident, according to court records. Craft then tried to dispose of evidence by throwing a razor blade away shortly after the attack, charges state.
Duran was treated at a local hospital and returned to prison after.
In 2007, when Perea was 19, he opened fire on a wedding party in Ogden, killing two and wounding two others. In 2010, he was convicted of two counts of aggravated murder and two counts of attempted murder, and he was sentenced to two terms of life without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors initially had planned to seek the death penalty but changed their minds before the trial began.
According to court records, the prison assault may have been linked to a previous fight between rival gangs on Sept. 9, 2015. Lovato and four other men were charged in that incident with three counts of assault by a prisoner, a second-degree felony.
Also Thursday, three other state prison inmates, Theodore Lowder, 23, Alapett Leiofi, 20, and James McCord, 23, were each charged with aggravated assault by a prisoner, a first-degree felony, for an attack on March 29 on another inmate in what investigators said was a gang-related incident, according court records.
The March 29 incident was determined not to be related to the other two, according to prison officials.
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