A man facing the death penalty after admitting he fatally slashed a correctional officer and tried to kill another officer in a 2012 prison rampage has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Miguel Alonso Contreras-Perez entered the not guilty plea Wednesday in Crowley County District Court in the slashing death of Sgt. Mary Ricard on Sept. 24, 2012, in the kitchen at the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility in Ordway. Perez allegedly also stabbed Sgt. Lori Gann the same day.
Crowley County District Attorney Jim Bullock has previously announced he is seeking the death penalty against Contreras-Perez, a convicted child rapist.
Attorneys on both sides of the case have sought a change of venue from Crowley County District Court in part because pretrial publicity in the rural county could taint a jury. The case has ground slowly through the court system in part because Contreras-Perez fired his initial attorneys and the issue of his mental competence has been a factor.
Perez has admitted killing Ricard, trying to kill Gann and at least one other correctional officer, to “boost” his body count to at least three.
“I’ll be honest with you. It was all about the body count,” Perez said in an interview videotaped the day after the stabbings.
Perez said the attacks were spurred by a jealous rage. He was obsessed with Gann and became upset because he believed she was involved in a sexual relationship with an inmate and the third guard he allegedly attacked.
Perez is an Army deserter who was sentenced in 2004 to 35 years to life in prison after he kidnapped and raped a 14-year-old girl in Colorado Springs.
During his preliminary hearing, investigators showed footage from several security cameras that captured Perez as he prepared his attacks. At one point he puts on an extra-large shirt that he brought into the kitchen on a food cart.
The video also shows Ricard bringing Perez into a locked storage area, walking behind rows of food carts where he allegedly stabbed her in the neck. Only their heads can be seen during the attack.
Prosecutors also entered into evidence several letters Perez wrote to friends and prosecutors boasting about the stabbings. One letter, written before he learned that Gann survived, boasted about killing two “pigs” and said he was proud to be a “cop killer.”
In another, he complained everyone was making such a big deal about killing Ricard. “It was only one little itty bitty person,” he wrote. He also wrote that he did Ricard a favor because she is a Christian and is now in heaven.
Ricard’s family has publicly denounced the death penalty, pointing out that Mary Ricard opposed the death penalty because of religious beliefs.
