Inmate Appears in Court

Prisoner Kills Correctional Officer

Michelle San Miguel, Pueblo Reporter/Telemundo Anchor, michelle.sanmiguel@krdo.com
POSTED: 02:05 PM MST Jan 30, 2013    UPDATED: 07:02 PM MST Jan 16, 2013 
ORDWAY, Colo. -

An inmate is in court. He's accused of killing a correctional officer in Crowley County.

The judge waived the advisement of a first-degree murder charge Tuesday.

Miguel Contreras-Perez is accused of stabbing Sgt. Mary Ricard at Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility last September. It happened in the kitchen. Lower-risk inmates were helping to prepare breakfast when authorities say Contreras-Perez stabbed and killed Ricard and critically injured another officer.

Contreras-Perez is serving a 35-year to life sentence for crimes of kidnapping and sexual assault with a deadly weapon. Those crimes occurred in El Paso County.

Members of the victim's family were in the courtroom Tuesday, but they did not want to speak on camera.

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