Jury acquits guard accused of beating death row inmate

STARKE, Fla. (AP) - A jury acquitted a prison guard Friday of all charges of beating a death row inmate who died the next day after a violent confrontation with officers at Florida State Prison.

Montrez Lucas, 31, hugged his attorney after the verdict was read. His wife, cried and said, ''Thank you.'' As he left the courthouse, Lucas said ''Glory be to God.''

Lucas was accused of beating inmate Frank Valdes, 36, who died the next day after a brawl with four other guards in his cell on X-wing, reserved for Florida's most violent inmates.

Lucas had been charged with aggravated battery, malicious battery on an inmate and coercion to falsify reports. He would have faced up to 15 years in prison if convicted of all charges.

Valdes was awaiting execution for the shooting death of a Palm Beach County prison guard while helping in an escape attempt three years ago.

Prosecutors said Lucas had beaten the handcuffed Valdes and broke his jaw. The four other guards, involved in the confrontation with Valdes the day he died, are charged with second-degree murder. Trial is scheduled for February.

Wanda Valdes, who married Frank Valdes in a 1994 prison ceremony, sobbed as the verdict was announced.

''Next time it will be a different story,'' Valdes said of the upcoming trial. ''I won't give up until it's over.''

When Valdes was taken to the hospital, guards claimed he injured himself by jumping off his concrete bunk onto the cell floor.

Two autopsies, one by the medical examiner and another by an independent coroner hired by Valdes' family, showed the inmate had fractures of the collarbone, nose, shoulder, jaw, breastbone and 22 ribs.

His scrotum was bruised and swollen, bones in his face were broken, his intestines and liver were damaged and there was a deep bruise on his side in the shape of a boot.

Before the verdict, Assistant State Attorney Mark Moseley said Lucas, who is black, brutally beat Valdes after the inmate taunted him with obscene and racial slurs.

Johnny Kearns, the public defender representing Lucas, said the state failed to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt. He said other guards saw the dead man after he was allegedly beaten by Lucas and testified there were no marks on the victim's body.

Florida prisons spokesman C.J. Drake said Lucas, who had been a guard for nine years, would not return to work.

''He was terminated on the basis of violating various departmental policies regarding his job,'' Drake said. ''Those allegations remain substantiated.''