Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Prison gang member on trial for jail stabbing

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Wednesday, October 13, 1999

Prison gang member on trial for jail stabbing
Man accused in 1997 incident at county jail; victim says he fears retaliation for testimony
By Novelda Sommers
Caller-Times

A 33-year-old man testified Tuesday that he was stabbed at the Nueces County Jail while serving Kool-Aid to inmates who he believed were ordered by a prison gang to kill him.
   Raul Soliz said he was afraid to testify against Christopher Ramos, who is accused of aggravated assault in connection with the Aug. 3, 1997, incident, because he fears retaliation.
   Ramos is not accused of stabbing Soliz, but prosecutor James Sales said Ramos was involved in a fracas during which Soliz was stabbed with a pen.
   A security video, Sales told jurors, shows Soliz walking toward an area where members of the Mexican Mafia prison gang were housed. In the video, a sheriff's deputy opens a door to let Soliz in, and several inmates rush out to attack Soliz, who was stabbed in the eye.
   After Soliz was wounded, the inmates quietly returned to their cells, Sales said.
   Soliz said that prior to the assault, prison gang members had asked him to kill someone as part of an initiation, but that he hadn't done it.
   "That was the reason for me to be disciplined," Soliz said.
   He said he did not see who stabbed him, but that Ramos had been involved in the attack.
   "I think he was just following orders. He was just doing what he was told," Soliz testified. He said he received stitches after the attack.
   Ramos was being held in the jail after he was sentenced to life in prison in the 1996 shooting death of Roy Salazar.
   Under questioning by Ramos' attorney, Grant Jones, Soliz said he knew only one of the men in the group that attacked him. He was jailed at the time on a parole violation. .



Staff writer Novelda Sommers can be reached at 886-3774 or by e-mail at sommersn@caller.com

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