BISMARCK -- A North Dakota State Penitentiary inmate pleaded not guilty Tuesday to allegedly stabbing another inmate.
Tovias Carrillo-Cerna entered his plea to felony charges of attempted murder and possessing a weapon in a correctional facility before South Central District Judge John Grinsteiner.
Carrillo-Cerna is accused of stabbing the other inmate with a weapon made from a piece of metal. The stabbing took place in a weight room, an area without cameras, at the State Penitentiary in December and led to a six-day lockdown at the maximum-security facility.
Carrillo-Cerna was in prison awaiting an August trial for murder in Williams County. He was transferred to prison last year after pleading guilty to two counts of possessing a weapon in the Williams County Correctional Center.
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The victim and four inmates identified Carillo-Cerna as his attacker, Capt. Todd Flanagan, an investigator with the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation testified Tuesday.
The weapon allegedly used was recovered 30 days later in the prison's music room. It was a described as an “ice pick style” weapon, or a steel rod that was 7- to 8-inches long with a bend forming a handle and wrapped with a bloody white cloth.
