June 26 – A guard at the New Mexico State Penitentiary outside Santa Fe was stabbed in the back of the head by an inmate earlier this month, according to criminal charges filed this week.
Cain Esquivel, a 36-year-old inmate at the facility, is charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon stemming from the June 12 incident, according to a probable cause statement.
New Mexico State Police wrote in the statement that Esquivel stabbed corrections officer Eric Lozano with a “shank” while the officer was performing a “shakedown” of Esquivel’s cell.
Lozano was treated at the prison’s medical unit and received three stitches for the wound, the statement said.
Lozano and another officer had handcuffed Esquivel behind his back through an opening in the inmate’s cell, a so-called “food port,” surveillance video shows, according to investigators, but Esquivel released his right hand from the handcuffs and charged at Lozano, swinging his arms “like a hook” at the officer.
Lozano told investigators that after officers gained control of Esquivel, he saw the knife and felt blood on his face.
State police spokesman Officer Wilson Silver said the weapon appeared to be made of “wood, tape, string and a piece of metal,” and that officers did not know how Esquivel obtained the weapon.
