Former prison guard gets probation in death of inmate

PLAINVIEW, Texas — A former prison guard charged in the death of an inmate whose head was slammed against a wall pleaded no contest to manslaughter and was given the minimum sentence by a jury that said it would have acquitted him.

Jose Rodriguez Jr., 28, originally faced a 99-year sentence on a murder charge that prosecutors reduced to manslaughter, the Plainview Daily Herald reported in Friday editions. After Rodriguez pleaded no contest earlier this week, a jury gave him two years' probation and no fine on a second-degree felony charge that carried maximum punishments of 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

"It is the unanimous judgment of this jury that if we had the option of finding Mr. Rodriguez innocent we would have done so," jury foreman Paul Henderson read from a statement after the punishment was announced.

Rodriguez was accused of slamming 52-year-old Paul Ray Judia's head into a cell wall at the Formby Unit in November after the handcuffed inmate allegedly kicked him in the groin. Judia died at a hospital three days after the incident.

"There was definitely a strong feeling among the jury that we shouldn't even be messing with this case because the community is very pro-prison," said Alice Gregg of the state's special prison prosecution unit in Lampasas.

Judia was a transfer inmate serving a 10-year sentence for burglary. Rodriguez was hired in 2005.

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