Man pleads guilty to second-degree murder in prison riot
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Federal prosecutors say Jesus Beltran Rodriguez has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder related to a deadly prison riot in Mississippi.
The 36-year-old Rodriguez entered the plea Monday before in federal court in Jackson. He will be sentenced May 19 and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
One guard was killed and 20 people were injured in the May 20, 2012, riot at the privately-run Adams County Correctional Facility in Natchez.
The prison holds nearly 2,500 inmates, most of them convicted on charges of coming back to the U.S. after deportation for being in the country illegally. The prison is owned by Nashville, Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America.
Several other inmates have been charged – or convicted – with participating in the riot.
