Secrets behind bars

A guard at Limon Correctional Facility who had a "more than just professional" relationship with an inmate tipped him off to an upcoming drug bust - information that later got him killed, authorities say.

Now two men are facing the death penalty in the 2004 killing of inmate Jeffrey S. Heird, who prosecutors say was stabbed 20 to 30 times because he didn't warn gang members about the bust.

The guard, Gina Kirkland, 30, denied the relationship when she took the witness stand in a preliminary hearing last year. She also said she never leaked information to Heird. Reached by phone this week, she declined to comment.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti said that Kirkland was moved to another position while an internal investigation was conducted, but that Kirkland "is no longer with us."

The possible relationship between the married guard and an inmate serving time for kidnapping and murder is just one revelation contained in the case files of accused murderers David Bueno and Alejandro Perez.

The documents, filed in Lincoln County court, paint a picture of a prison occupied by more than 170 gangs, where contraband was regularly coming in and the drug trade lucrative enough that a disruption of business may be reason to kill.

Different stories

Heird was convicted of kidnapping and killing a gas station attendant in Cortez in 1991.

In prison, he was a power weight lifter who worked for a while as the facility's plumber. He met Kirkland when he went to the visiting area to do plumbing work, she testified during a 2006 hearing for Bueno and Perez.

Kirkland, whose husband still works in the prison's transportation department, conducted background checks on visitors and from time to time, monitored phone calls and visits, she said.

Kirkland testified that she knew Heird for about a year and a half before he came to work as one of her porters in the visiting area. She also said they never had a sexual or more than professional relationship.

Taking the witness stand immediately after Kirkland, Heird's mother, Mary Foote, testified she spoke with her son twice a week while he was in Limon, and that they talked about his relationship with Kirkland.

She said the two had a relationship for one or two years. She didn't think the relationship was ever sexual, but said it was "more than an employee-inmate relationship."

Heird and Kirkland had "deep discussions," including one about Heird wanting Kirkland to have his child, Foote said, according to a transcript of the proceeding. She also said she was troubled by the relationship because if prison authorities found out about it, her son would be in trouble.

"It's like if they had gotten caught having sex or something, then (Heird) - they could have hollered rape and (Heird) would have faced charges," Foote said.

Keeping a secret

In January 2004, Heird told Michael Snyder, his friend and fellow inmate, that he had learned from Kirkland that one of their friends was going to be arrested, Snyder testified. Heird was afraid because he didn't want to get Kirkland in trouble, Snyder said.

Asked by an attorney why Heird was worried about his boss, Snyder replied, "Probably because she wasn't supposed to be relaying information like that to any inmates."

Kirkland testified that she never told Heird anything. She speculated that he may have overheard her talking to other prison staff about the impending bust.

"I think he put two and two together," she said.

The investigation involved white supremacists accused of using a pickup truck that frequently entered the facility to smuggle drugs inside, said Lt. Timothy Smelser, a prison gang investigator.

A group of supremacists, along with other gangs, "owned" parts of the truck. The supremacists stashed their drugs inside the tailgate section, Smelser said.

He also said Heird was a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, which was aligned with the supremacists.

Both Snyder and Heird kept the information to themselves, opting not to warn their friend or any of his associates, Snyder testified. A few days later, three men - two of them supremacists - were arrested, Smelser said.

The bust hurt drug business inside the prison because it put an end to a source of supply, prosecutors say.

So when Snyder let it slip in March 2004 that he and Heird knew about the bust before it happened - and didn't alert anyone - other inmates were angry.

Prosecutors say that was the motive behind Heird's death.

On March 28, 2004, guards found the 38-year-old Heird face-down on his bed inside his cell. He had been stabbed with a heavy-gauge wire resembling an ice pick, authorities said.

He was one of four inmates murdered in Colorado prisons that year.

Sanguinetti, the Department of Corrections spokeswoman, said staff "work 24-seven" to keep prisons safe for visitors, employees and inmates. But she said it is not unusual for contraband - such as drugs - to be smuggled inside.

"Unfortunately, yes, it does occur," Sanguinetti said.

Strict racial lines

Bueno and Perez were indicted for the killing in December 2005. In October 2006, District Attorney Carol Chambers announced her office was seeking the death penalty.

Prosecutors allege Bueno and Perez are members of a Hispanic gang who were dealing drugs in the prison, and that they killed Heird because he didn't protect their business. In another court filing, they said the supremacists enlisted other gang members to help "clean up their ranks."

Bueno and Perez have pleaded not guilty. Their attorneys argue that prosecutors' theory of the crime doesn't make sense because several witnesses testified that it's rare for violence to occur across racial lines in prison.

Hispanics don't attack blacks or whites, for example, and if a white person needs to be taught a lesson, it's another white person who does the job, witnesses said. So it's most likely that other white supremacists - not the Hispanic defendants - committed the killing, defense attorneys argue.

The lawyers also say evidence against their clients is weak, particularly since much of it relies on witnesses with criminal records who are motivated to say what prosecutors want to get a better prison assignment or a lighter sentence.

Prosecutors counter that after the killing, Bueno and Perez tried to get witnesses killed - a charge defense attorneys deny, but one prosecutors say shows their guilt.

Inmate deaths in Colorado prisons

* MURDER/HOMICIDE

2002 1

2003 1

2004 4

2005* 2

* SUICIDE

2002 8

2003 5

2004 4

2005 6

* NATURAL/ACCIDENTAL

2002 48

2003 45

2004 37

2005 58

Limon Correctional Facility

* Opened: April 1991

* Cost: $51.4 million

* Inmates: 953

* Staff: 315

* Security: Level 4, second highest (Level 5 is the highest level of security in Colorado prisons).